Extreme weather in his native Japan over the summer got Mitsuru Nishizaki thinking. How could he use his distinct hand with pattern-making to propose something new with his tailoring for a world getting hotter each year?
The layered silhouettes he devised featured clever cutouts details; suit jackets had their sides cut out, allowing air to circulate, their bib-like fronts hanging free, eyelets and tabs of fabric helping fasten them under the shoulders, for instance, and adding further interest to the silhouette.
Other blazers were cropped, positioned cape-like over the shoulders and styled with shirts, wrap skirts and pants in lightweight yet structured fabrics, some with outsized pockets evoking a utilitarian vibe. Classic gray, beige and black looks rubbed shoulders with sherbet orange, lilac and a pinstripe in the palest of yellows.
Nishizaki reduced organza shirts to a single transparent sleeve with a scarf attached, to be tied on over a shirt or jacket or under a t-shirt for a distinctive asymmetric look. Wide trousers had deep slits to their sides, accentuating movement like a cool breeze. A traditional Shibori tiedye technique was used on a selection of intentionally creased satin pieces in shades that evoked a petrol spill on a wet pavement, while the season’s print featured a series of abstract geometric swirls.
New this season was a collaboration with sportswear brand Reebok, resulting in a capsule of reinterpreted shellsuits in a billowy textured technical fabric on jackets and skirts with drawstring details worn open over more formal pants. It was an evocation of Mishizaki’s love of vintage fashion and a coherent, appealing extension of his exploration of sportier shapes for the first time in his fall collection.
