Mar 13

Mar 13 Noir Kei Ninomiya FW26

Kei Ninomiya called his FW26 collection "Dark Blooming," and the title did its job with unusual precision. The show opened in the territory most familiar to the house: sculptural, thorn-like constructions and ribcage forms that conveyed confinement, heightened by Shinji Konishi's intricate headpieces. Black dominated. Spiny exoskeletons and metallic hardware gave the opening looks a quality of armour, or perhaps of something still trapped inside itself. Then the blooms arrived. Tiny calla lilies burst from the tip of a spiky flurry. Woven garlands threaded through sharp-looking snarls. Naive bubbly doodles rendered in metal dangled from harnesses. The shift was not gentle. It was, rather, the visual equivalent of Ninomiya's own words after the show: "There is this sadness in the world in this new century. But we should make it positive."

Flight jackets and MA-1 bomber jackets elongated into dresses and skirts, losing their martial character and taking a turn for the romantic when executed in blush tones, with matching tulle skirts. The palette's movement from black to crimson to blush traced the collection's emotional arc with the logic of a well-constructed argument. Even a ribcage worn as a plastron did nothing to diminish Ninomiya's considerable tailoring skills; beneath it sat a cropped tuxedo jacket, comprised mainly of lapels, shoulders, and sleeves, held immaculately in place by buttoned strips running down the back. The headpieces, produced by Shinji Konishi and featuring angry animals in poses so exaggerated they read as meme-worthy, supplied the show's final, deliberate tonal note. The gothic vocabulary was entirely present, but the atmosphere it generated was closer to theatrical teenage angst than genuine despair. Heavy in the moment, and capable of lifting. A collaboration with PUMA produced a reworked Speedcat with a translucent 3D floral shell in black, crimson, and blush. The sneaker extended the collection's argument onto the feet with commitment and a certain wit.