In the Middle Ages, early chemical science was confused for magic and called alchemy, an occult-ish in-between. Toward the end of today’s Anrealage show came some moments of bona fide eye-defying 21st-century alchemy. The five or so strapped white looks—think post-apocalyptic fencing outfits, with webbing—were worn by their models halfway up the runway. When they stopped at a predetermined spot, the lights dimmed almost to dark, and the wearers flexed and stretched against their clothing—a bit like a superhero doing a takeoff or landing pose. When they did, green flashes rippled bright at the areas in the garment they stretched against. There were no LEDs, no CGI, nothing tricksy or sleight of hand.
These wearable aurora borealis, explained Kunihiko Morinaga through a translator backstage, were made in a house-developed cloth that employed mechanochromic technology to translate kinetic energy into light. Like those Global Hypercolor T-shirts from back in the day—but much better—these garments would make awesome ravewear.
The collection that preceded Morinaga’s otherworldly finale—impossible to capture in runway images, sadly—was an interesting exercise in what the designer said was “an attempt to visualize power.” By power, he meant literal power: force. All the taping was a reference to the kinesiology strips used by athletes to buttress their muscles. A pink V-neck dress featured wide sleeves strapped to bulge as an aping of well-developed biceps. A long white mesh dress/shift featured strapping at the groin to suggest similarly rock-like glutes. As well as electrical power, there was toughness in these clothes. Morinaga used something called Cuben Fiber—apparently light enough to float but stronger than iron, and which I embarrassingly heard as “Cuban” and kept asking the proper name for—which was light and gauze like as the inlay for more meshed looks. To the sound of martial drumming, the strapping on some of these Anrealage looks resembled the boned thorax-like structures of traditional Japanese body armor. There were also three supersize T-shirts blown up in size three times and then—via more strapping—tethered to the body. Whoever is producing the next Avengers movie should get Morinaga on the phone—via his translator—ASAP: Dr. Bruce Banner should definitely get into this collection.
