Anrealage’s shows have the tendency to wash over you, full of clever ideas not quite understood in the moment, then days later you catch the images floating through your mind.
That essence is distilled this season with designer Kunihiko Morinaga’s Planet collection, an ethereal space opera that offered up luminescent dresses and quilted white puffer shifts that lifted like a cloud. But clouds are earthbound — and Morinaga has taken us to the moon.
There are, of course, the technical details that he masters: the designer worked with Japanese space agency JAXA to use their textile that protects against cold up to -196 Celsius; he added fans inside the garments to ensure ventilation; he developed his own fabric woven with fiber optic thread that changes with the touch of a phone; the United Nude collab trainers were crafted after the official “moon boots” — albeit altered for life with gravity.
It was all transformed into voluminous separates with unexpected proportions, clavicle-exposing collars, inverted pleating, updated cargo pants and chunky knits.
He intended the collection to be a melancholy mediation on how we are treating planet Earth, and added a quote from Neil Armstrong following this week’s events: “We came in peace for all mankind.”
The overall effect is both haunting and hopeful.