Since launching her eponymous label in 2014, Central Saint Martins graduate Akiko Aoki has become one of Tokyo Fashion Week’s most promising young talents, her romantically twisted work drawing frequent comparisons to Sacai’s Chitose Abe. This season, she was inspired by native folkloric dress from around the world, as a way to return to a more “primitive” mindset. “Here in the world, people are getting too angry,” she explained after the show. “I wanted to go back to a simpler way of doing things.”
She began by contrasting “classic motifs and constructions” with bold color. Take the bright pink sarong skirt, tied shut with a jeogori’s ribbon from Korea. Equally important was the drape and movement of the fabric—an emerald green satin slip and accordion-pleated skirt, dragging gracefully around the room as models navigated one of the more complicated sets of the week. It was meant to ensure showgoers could see each piece from every angle. “Everything should be different from the front, back, and sides,” she said, pointing toward the bustier dresses that, when viewed from the back, were revealed to be aprons inspired by traditional Tanzanian costume.
Where sky-high stripper shoes distracted the eye, a set of sculptural gold earrings from a collaboration with jewelry designer Masaki Shimizu looked right. Coiled down from the ears or extended outward like wings, they added the sort of feminine quirk Aoki is making her own.
