In his show notes, Hidenori Kumakiri opened with a philosophical observation: “What we do not show is truer, and more important, than what we show.” It sounded like a riff on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous line from The Little Prince: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
In any case, it was a poetic way of pointing up “side C”—not the front, or the back, but the invisible “intimate layer” of his clothes. That was the crux of a collection that was all about exploring and expanding possibilities in the space between garment and lining.
“Having one piece that you can wear many different ways is one way to talk about sustainability,” Kumakiri said backstage, through an interpreter. “You don’t get bored with your clothes because there are many ways to play with them.” (He is moving more into sustainable fabrics too.)
If it sounds complicated, there’s a good reason for it. It’s easier to glimpse the ghostly effect of a logo trapped between puffer and veil, or the glint of strass shimmering beneath openwork knit on a fringed sweater, than it is to explain how Kumakiri’s trench is actually a three-fer. But once a model slips between the lining and the outer shell, you get why the designer’s hyperintellectual process has garnered such a loyal following. A tailored black jacket, for example, comes with a lining that can also be a blouse. The silver shearling duffle coat probably has hidden aspects to its personality too, but it looks great just straight up. Elsewhere, a black-and-gray dress is the kind of piece that probably needs its own tutorial. But that’s all part of the game.
Beautiful People pieces are actually shape-shifters. Wearing them is more of a participative process than many designers would dare demand—and this season, for the first time, men are being invited to get into the act. But somehow Kumakiri pulls it off. This show was proof that, in the right hands, highly complex conceptual designs can actually appear simple—and even, at times, convincing.
