Satoshi Kondo sent an elegant, sculptural fall collection down the glitter-strewn runway.
“It all began when I took a walk after my lunch break, and I found this stone,” he said, adding there was nothing special about its look. “But when I touched it, I felt a certain sense of calming. I felt at ease.
“It was at that moment I thought: This stone that I’m holding in my hand, it’s what nature created,” he continued. “Not by any designer, not by any people or human being.”
Kondo explored this idea applied to fashion. “By not designing something, would I be able to see the inner beauty?” he mused. “See more of the object’s nature itself? How much should I leave room for things to happen? It’s quite a delicate balance.”
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Issey Miyake’s women’s line has always been about the relationship between the wearer’s body and a piece of cloth. Kondo’s idea, therefore, was to yield to cloth’s nature.
The stone was 3D-scanned and knit technicians made an enlarged rendering based on that. It was translated into a garment seemingly extruded from the stone.
Kondo scaled back his traditional design process and focused on the textile itself. Mostly in sober hues such as gray and black, but with pops of color like lemon or dark orchid, the fabrics came in knits, pleats and other fine-crafted textures. Their shapes informed the streamlined garments, which took on graceful, sometimes surprising, forms and volumes.
An oversize pinstripe jacket swirled around over a long matching skirt. A V-neck, belted burgundy dress came fashioned from a rectangular cloth.
Technology and Japanese washi craftsmanship merged to create lacquered bustiers 3D-printed on a female torso. They wink to Issey Miyake’s Body Works from the ’80s but were of today.
