Sometimes I just love Suzy! [64]
October 2, 2007
By Suzy Menkes
The Japanese hold on avant garde fashion has existed since the
1980s. But 20 years on, it cannot be reiterated too often that there is
no such thing as "Japanese design" - rather a group of exceptionally
creative individuals.
After a beautiful and graceful show from Yohji Yamamoto, using
liquid silver to rearticulate all he loves about women, his daughter
Limi Feu will take to the Paris runway for the first time on Saturday.
In many ways, the designers who work in the studio complex of Comme
des Garçons are Rei Kawakubo's fashion children. But instead of reining
their creativity to her own remarkable talent, she lets them free when
she thinks they are ready.
Junya Watanabe was the first of her protégés to take flight. And his
show Tuesday proved why his mentor should have confidence in him. After
a couple of hesitant seasons of pleasantly wearable clothes laced with
rock 'n roll, Watanabe took a new departure.
Toga-like drapes in bright colors came out on models with straw
trilbies perched on broken shards, as though Julian Schnabel had taken
a hammer to mirrored glass and dropped the results in their hair.
Later, the same drapes and bunches of fabric appeared in Liberty
florals, hinting at the references to ancient Rome and Art Nouveau seen
on other runways.
So what was Watanabe's inspiration for the show?
"African roots," he announced backstage.
The creative mind has its own rhythms and meanderings. And with the
Japanese designer's pronouncement, it suddenly became clear that
Watanabe was working lengths of fabrics shaped and draped in a way
indigenous to folklore, but hard to achieve in Western clothing. This
collection was both a departure for Watanabe from his rock 'n roll
inclinations and also nearer to his mentor's.
Yet Watanabe has his own spirit and it was beautifully expressed in
this show. To add a twist to the graceful folds, there were other
themes - a riff on a Chanel jacket but in a puckered sports-look fabric
with gilded braiding and worn with loose shorts. There were even a few
examples of elegant tailoring in tightly fitted jackets.
Was all that "Out of Africa"? Who cares? It was a strong, lively show celebrating a creative spirit.
Tao Kurihara is yet another protégé nurtured by Comme des Garçons and for the designer's first major show of the Tao label, outside salon presentation, she had a message: "My own holy tribe."
You could take that to mean the designer's native identity -
especially as the indigo that touched the early part of the show turned
dark as a Japanese fisherman's work wear by the end. But the more
probable explanation was that Tao feels that she is designing for her
own generation, on the cusp of the 20s with 30's, leaving behind the
girly years.
Although there was a touch of pink in one of the charming knitted
hats that stood up like towers and in the sequins decorating the
forehead, the designer's approach was young but graceful rather than
frivolously cute.
White cottons, with tucks and lacy inserts, were in the
fresh-as-a-handkerchief spirit Tao has expressed before. But she
introduced many new elements, from polka dot patterns that showed
through the long white dresses like a chef's trousers and even floral
prints. They were all used on dresses with those indeterminate,
follow-the-body shapes that are identified with Comme des Garçons. But
it is Kawakubo's strength that she lets her one-time assistants develop
and express themselves. Tao did that beautifully.
Yohji Yamamoto is a seasoned fashion player and in
his spring/summer show he visited familiar territory, but the dark
sweetness of his collection was still full of grace, as hooped
crinoline frills rippled over simple black pants and overalls turned to
reveal silver chains suspended at the back.
There are moments when you feel that a designer is expressing the
soul of a fashion consciousness. "This is what I believe in," Yamamoto
seemed to say: a womanly take on a man's world, the erotic power of the
half-bared back, black used with different textures as a color and
highlighted by silver, like the moon on dark water.
The show, with its elongated silhouettes and sculpted
reinterpretations of crinolines, was Yamamoto at his romantic best. And
if he has worked this territory many times before, it was done with
pure conviction.
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