Designer Hidenori Kumakiri mixed his idea that clothes should go the extra mile, provided you wore them upside-down or even sideways, with a childhood game of dress-up based on what one might do as a grown-up.
He reworked work-appropriate tailoring and uniforms for smaller body frames, ending with that of-the-moment cropped and lightly shrunken look. In keeping with the childhood inspiration, prints of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” were dotted here and there, sometimes blown up to abstract proportions that highlighted the textures and colors of the original tissue-paper paintings of late American artist Eric Carle.
Elsewhere, he played with classic Americana or tenets of a classic wardrobe, turning a stadium jacket into a casual puffer coat; classic checked coats that revealed a pattern inspired by neon lights; a black leather biker turning upside down to reveal Kumakiri’s take on the leather jacket architect Le Corbusier made famous in the 1960s.
There were also flight and bomber jackets from the brand’s collaboration with Alpha Industries that could be worn four ways, and a second chapter to the brand’s hookup with Wacoal Men which resulted in T-shirts (for anyone) that looked like they’d been repurposed from tighty-whities. They were also the first organic cotton pieces for the underwear specialist.
Having forgone a Paris runway show at the last moment for personal reasons, the brand showed its fall collection in a showroom format. It was all the better to get up close with Kumakiri’s designs, which fell in step with the season’s undercurrent for polished, but not quite classic tailoring.
