Placed on every seat at the Setchu show in Florence on Thursday night were little square boxes containing a couple of folded sheets of paper, origami-style.
They set the tone for — and contained press notes on — Japanese designer Satoshi Kuwata’s creative process for his first runway show. The 2023 LVMH Prize for Young Designers winner, invited as a guest designer of the Pitti Uomo showcase, homed in on his masterful sartorial skills pushing the envelope of the menswear silhouette with a multifunctional slant. Call it sartorial utility.
Under the imposing reading room of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze library and cinematic lighting, he took the audience on an East-West trip, down Savile Row and into the rich textile legacy of his native Japan, drawing on tailored tropes but inviting their wearer to play with them according to instinct and need.
The show opened with morning suits worn by male and female models with tartan pants and pleated skirt, respectively, developed in collaboration with London’s oldest operating tailor Davis & Sons. It closed on tailcoats, also part of the tie-up, the woman wearing its tails tucked inside hakama pants, a traditional Japanese hybrid between a pleated skirt and pants.
In between there were couples and groups of models wearing variations of the same outfit, the handkerchief dress doubling as a cape or full skirt or the collarless square jacket, wrapped around the neck as a shawl, tied and cinched to look like a strapless dress or flowing sideways.
At first, they triggered a sense of discomfort, for even trained eyes were deceived and could barely realize they were looking at the same garment until their attempts to decode each piece brought delight from seeing Kuwata’s resourcefulness.
The peacoat with side slits worn over baggy pants, the light blue shirt with a side panel tucked into the collar to become a sophisticated bib, the camel knits with buttons running down the front and the sleeves were all captivating pieces; ditto for the boxy jacket in silk jacquard bearing homoerotic motifs.
There lies Kuwata’s creative genius. By playfully toying with fabrics, proportions, and a whole lot of snap buttons, toggles, zippers and folds, he managed to create a new wardrobe.
