A walk-through with Satoshi Kuwata can evoke a magician’s act: before even getting to his spring 2025 clothes, the Japanese designer pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and partially tore it in front of his eyes to display the starting point of his creative process.
The neat cutting, the paper strips bending over to reveal their back sides and the overarching concept of metamorphosis and having one piece broken down into multiple parts inspired this handsome collection, which revealed new, lighter nuances in Kuwata’s tropes.
The designer’s penchant for garment construction was in full display in tank top dresses and workwear-inspired shirts with detachable hems and sleeves, which revealed skin — funny how he defined these innocent clothes “sexier” than his previous collections — and enabled a change in lengths and proportions.
In the same multifunctional vein, the 2023 LVMH Prize winner continued to profusely use zippers, snap buttons and buttons to transform fleeces, cotton shirts and ribbed knits and open their silhouettes to new styling solutions.
A standout baby blue suit with a relaxed fit but whose construction still winked to origami folding techniques as well as a series of sartorial suits in seersucker fabric added to the lighter approach and summery feel that ran through the lineup. Denim was also a highlight for delivering the same effect through textile experimentation, as seen in overalls crafted from a blend of paper and denim and accented by marked folding creases.
While in the past he had included delicate touches of floral patterns, this time Kuwata worked with artist Louis Barthélemy on Manga-inspired illustrations rendered in vivid colors and black-and-white on shirts and asymmetric frocks. Portraying a group of samurai in front of the Sphinx in Giza, the bold print made for an unexpected and flashy move for the Japanese talent. But the best trick up his sleeve remains his ability to turn immediate wardrobe archetypes into sophisticated garments with an unpredictable edge.
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