The invitation to Doublet’s fall show featured a brightly colored event ticket proclaimed to be a “ticket to escape.”
But designer Masayuki Ino staged his latest collection outdoors, where it proved challenging to escape the cold snap in Paris. Even the cast members meant to prance around and chase each other playfully looked like they kept moving to keep warm.
“Thank you for coming, the parade will start soon,” said a voiceover reminiscent of a world-famous theme park mouse. The cast came rushing through, wearing a mix of common-place garments and costume pieces, as if they were in the middle of dressing at call time or to run an errand while still in the panda suit they’d worn on the clock.
Among the standouts were a literal mermaid skirt, tail lolling about on one side; overlong knit sweaters and leggings, bunched up at wrists or ankles; a bright red bomber jacket that looked like it was an overgrown cluster of balloons, strings still attached, and hooded parkas with a bill shaped like crocodile snouts and wolf muzzles.
Ino’s established recipe of staples worked over with an eye for the surreal continued to yield memorable items. But between the bone-deep cold and the models’ trudging gait, the magic didn’t fully happen.