pragmatism at Victoria/Tomas, Dawei, Japanese vibes at Mame Kurogouchi, Anrealage

On Tuesday, Paris Fashion Week came alive with a series of interesting runway shows, blending a variety of styles, genres and outlooks. Some designers redefined the Parisian look, with their own take on everyday womenswear for Spring/Summer 2024. This was evident at Victoria/Tomas and Dawei, as well as Christian Dior. Others instead opted to go on a journey, inspired by the past and the future, like Japanese labels Mame Kurogouchi and Anrealage.

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Victoria/Tomas, the label founded in 2012 by Victoria Feldman and Tomas Berzins – the former hails from Russia, the latter from Latvia – seems to have reached maturity this season. A year ago, Victoria herself opened the show, her first baby in her arms. Since then, she has become a mother again, an entrepreneur-designer fully immersed in the everyday struggle of dealing with two young children. “It is a stunning lesson on the strength, patience and power of women,” she wrote in a statement.
 
Exit then the label’s iconic high-heeled lace-up booties, the hallmark of Victoria/Tomas, replaced by robust, flat black leather boots. While still young at heart, Victoria/Tomas’s ideal woman has become more pragmatic. The impeccably cut outfits are comfy and practical but haven’t lost their edgy mood, always with a little sexy touch. Classic sky blue or khaki cotton blouses with maxi pockets came with miniskirts. The light grey sweater, a wardrobe staple, showed in a cropped version enhanced with frills, while denim items were worn inside out, emphasising different textural and colour effects.

It was all in the details, in the extra allure provided by tassels and metallic elements, like the stud buttons, eyelets and thin chains accenting some of the garments. Long vertical slits streaked down trousers and capes, and elsewhere, t-shirts and frilled skirts revealed lateral openings, while the snake, a symbol of fertility, featured on skirts and jackets with embroidery.

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Exuberance, bright colours and ample volumes characterised Dawei’s new collection, which was nevertheless highly wearable and multi-faceted. The Chinese designer’s starting point was the shape of clouds, and he explored rounded, bulging forms, creating puffed poplin dresses gathered at the waist or just below the knee, airy wind-breakers, tops and shirts gathered at the back, and parachute-like tunics layered over one another, seemingly inflated by the wind. The colour palette ranged from the pink and azure of clouds to aquamarine, teal blue, turquoise and pale yellow.
 
In the second part of his collection, Dawei Sun changed register, emphasising tailored cuts and more classic colours. A grey trench coat worn over a swirling linen skirt in the same hue, white blouses over trousers or an aquamarine wrap skirt. Flowing trouser suits were made in liangchou silk, a traditional Chinese fabric that is both crisp and lightweight, almost like organza with a leather-like look.  
 
Dawei closed the show with several glittering items cut from lightweight silvery and golden foil, like chocolate bar wrapping. “Each item can be worn separately in everyday looks, they’re all extremely urban,” said Dawei Sun backstage. The label is distributed via some 30 multibrand retailers, notably in South Korea, China, the Middle East and Japan, and also has a concession at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

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The setting was wholly different at Mame Kurogouchi, which invited its guests to the Ogata restaurant, a temple of Japanese cuisine. Designer Maiko Kurogouchi personally welcomed the guests, offering them tea and Ogata’s delicious pastry. She couldn’t have chosen a better place in Paris to immerse her audience in Japanese culture.
 
As she often does, Kurogouchi designed her collection drawing on typical elements of Japanese craftsmanship. This time, she focused on ceramics, inspired by tableware fragments dating back to the 18th century, whose blue patterns she reproduced on printed silk scarves, and as embossed motifs across most of the collection, including some amazing embossed denim sets.
 
More than the porcelain’s motifs, it was the material’s indefinite colour and substance that Kurogouchi tried to reproduce in her garments, using a subtle palette of grey, mauve, cream and sage green, as well as rare fabrics. She opted for sleek silhouettes, fashioning long taffeta coats, flared cotton dresses with a hint of puff sleeves, and fitted silk tunics. The trousers and skirts, the latter slit at the back, reached down to the floor.
 
Clad in monochrome outfits, wearing pumps or traditional Zori sandals, and carrying small transparent plastic handbags enhanced by rich embroidery, the models oozed sophisticated elegance, with their uber-chic dungarees in lightweight silk, their floaty, sheer draped dresses, and a gleaming kimono-style top.

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Anrealage has created a collection for space travel, propelling us into the future. Japanese designer Kunihiko Moriniga continues with his high-tech experiments, once again staging a spectacular presentation. Looking like humanoids from another planet, their eyes shielded behind oversize glasses, the models appeared on the pitch-dark stage wearing white trousers and long-sleeved tops.
 
Transparent plastic elements were then added over this basic outfit: long undulating skirts, some shorter or flared, bras, buoy-like inflated collars, waterproof jackets, dresses trimmed with plastic ribbons and ruffles, and more. Plus an array of amusing jewellery consisting of huge spheres and loops worn around the neck and wrists, or attached to the ears. All the accessories were made of plastic, from moccasins to gloves and balaclavas.
 
In this attire, the models then stepped centre-stage in pairs, coming to rest on a circular plate that swivelled round, while an ultra-violet neon beam swept up and down their photosensitive clothes, gradually revealing the myriad colours featured in their garments.
 
The effect was stunning, as suddenly the clothes’ thousand and one details were clearly revealed, in an extensive palette ranging from green to pink, yellow, blue, purple and other hues, with a plethora of patterns: squares, stripes, checks, floral motifs and even the label’s logo printed as a monogram.