It was a stay at the LOG — or Lantern Onomichi Garden — hotel in Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture, redesigned by Studio Mumbai, that fired up Satoshi Kondo’s imagination for spring.
In his room there, the ceiling, floor and hangar rack were covered in washi paper made in Kyoto.
“As I entered and stayed in this room, there was the sentiment or sensation of calming, soothing and something that’s grounding you,” said Kondo in a preview of the collection. “You feel at ease.”
This was what he sought to evoke on the Paris runway. His setting, a glass-walled, wooden-beamed pavilion in the Parc Floral, saw its walls and floor coated with wrinkled paper in calming white. Each guest was seated on a stool that was also crafted from a roll of the material resembling a log, itself created using compressed paper that is a by-product of the brand’s pleating technology.
On the runway, Kondo explored different types of papermaking, both in the fabrics used and for aesthetic inspiration. “This collection is about the texture and qualities that you find in paper,” as well as the art of and elements surrounding papermaking, such as light, water and time, and how that can be applied to clothing, he explained.
Some used age-old materials like hemp, others were crafted using modern technology, while still retaining paper’s quality or texture. Certain pieces appeared folded like a box or origami model, with accentuated, angular hips and shoulders and voluntary creasing. There was also a material made from slivers of washi paper and a rayon-silk blend to create a lightweight material that wrapped around the body in a series of stretchy, body-hugging hooded dresses.
Known for its architectural volumes and plays on structure, Issey Miyake’s collection was true to brand while evoking several of the season’s recurrent themes, notably when it came to transparency and outsized volumes.
Crisp, semitransparent fabrics in off-white or black were folded over, emphasizing their proportions and making them alienating yet soothing. A pair of tailored pants in an eggplant hue, with their extra-wide, jagged hips, were just one of any number of standouts.
Knits, ruffled across the body, whispered about softness and calm. As a print on creased satin or as accessories, pressed flower details, reminiscent of those found between the pages of an antique book, underscored the sense of poetry.
