Notorious for organising bizarrelly botched showcases such as the one we explored in yesterday's post, Florence's Pitti Uomo trade show is luckily also well-known for special projects like the double bill runway that on Thursday evening took place at the Stazione Leopolda. The event reunited two Japanese labels, Jun Takahashi's Undercover and Takahiromiyashita The Soloist.
The show marked a return to Florence for Takahashi who, nine years ago, presented Undercover's S/S 2010 menswear collection at the Boboli Gardens.
This time there were none of the magically eerie dolls that Takahashi called "Graces", but a focus on the dichotomies of life.
Though the show was divided into two neat parts (this seems to be a recurring theme recently for Takahashi, whose latest women's show focused on the idea of twins...), it was considered as one event playing around the order/disorder and disorder/order themes.
Takahashi was the first to go: things started with floor-length pleated skirts with matching turtlenecks and gloves. Rather than hinting at the genderless trend, the ensembles - replicated in grey, navy, camel, plaid and check prints - called to mind the attire of samurais.
Then came soft knitted bermuda shorts and fleece tailored suits and tracksuits that pointed to nature and woods, but some elements matched with them, like the rubber boots and thick safety gloves, started to introduce the dystopian side of the collection.
Warnings such as "Caution: Contains Explosive Bolts", "Computer Malfunction" and "Human Error" appeared on nylon trenches, rubber boots, bags, sweats and padded tops, but it was the message "HAL 9000", the sentient computer HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" that pointed to the core inspiration for this collection.
Takahashi proceeded to incorporate screenshots of the film - the monolith, the astronauts, the cool interiors of the spaceships and the iconic final bedroom - on some of the designs, such as tops, jackets and a dramatic poncho (hopefully copyrights for the use of such images were sorted...).
The slogans on the designs and the reference to "A Space Odyssey" pointed therefore at the role of artificial intelligence in our times and at the war between man and machine.
Though dystopian, the collection didn't have a final pessimist message as the show closed with relaxing argyle and plaid motifs, followed by a model clad in a comfy dressing gown and pajamas set printed with tiny images of the character Frank Poole adrift in space, and by a group of astronauts in primary coloured space suits and LED-lit face masks.
As a whole the collection, though reeking here and there of Raf Simons' S/S 18 designs (see ample raincoats, rubbber boots, post-modernist slogans and the soundtrack that started with Joy Division's "Atmosphere"...), offered plenty of choice to consumers.
There was instead more pessimism in Miyashita's collection, symbolised also by the hooded and masked figures on the runway, pointing at a sense of isolation.
This was the first ever catwalk show for the Takahiromiyashita The Soloist brand and it wasn't certainly a light and happy one: the designer perceived dystopia as a series of layered garments suspended between uniform, workwear and safety gear.
Houndstooth, check and black tailored suits were hidden under capes, hooded cloaks and padded headgear; they were covered in layers of black oily rubber and matched with rubber boots and geta sandals.
Protection was one of the themes of the collection as Japanese armours were transformed into quilted coats and cloaks secured by complicated systems of straps.
Miyashita's mysterious figures weren't terrorists, but survivors (see the fringed logo blankets wrapped around the hips or the shoulders), futuristic monks and cosmic ninjas.
The designer also played with dichotomies on a material level: he juxtaposed indeed more natural fabrics such as wool with traditional Prince of Wales patterns to nylon and turned bonded leather into a taurpaulin tent-like maxi cape pierced with rows of metallic grommets.
The palette went from black and white to vivid splashes of orangey red and silver, shades that added a sporty touch to the collection (mind you, it may have been borrowed from "Star Wars", with black symbolising the forces of darkness, white pointing at the rebels and orange at the rebel fighter pilots...).
Most models donned face masks and balaclavas, looking like members of a genderless tribe. Who knows maybe they were the last human beings to be alive after an apocalypse of some sort (caused by pollution? climate change? a nuclear war?).
The themes on both runways were relevant to our times: from the battle between artificial intelligence and humans to a possible apocalypse maybe caused by the stupidity of human beings. It was interesting to know that the two designers worked in isolation and never showed to each other their work, but got to the same conclusions when it came to certain moods for this joint runway: maybe it is true what they say - great minds do think alike.
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