Welcome aboard this review bound for the Comme des Garçons galaxy. Rei Kawakubo lit it in Tokyo in 1969 and, with her husband Adrian Joffe, founded Dover Street Market, concept stores around the world and an incubator that scouts and backs the most promising creative talents. Under its umbrella, two other stars show in Paris: Junya Watanabe, and Noir, launched in 2012 by Kei Ninomiya, a pattern maker she hired in 2008. His intricate carapaces shelter pure yet thorny poetry.
From the first look of the Spring-Summer 2027 collection, the show opens a world apart. Clear arches spread like antlers, veiled by a curtain of pearls hung on invisible thread, under a crown of branches in white blossom. Heads vanish under curled wigs in platinum, ash grey, powder pink, burnt copper and bottle green, or under halos of dried flowers and charred twigs, and blooms sit in mouths, over eyes and around faces. A single red rose is held between the lips. Nature has been deformed in the soundtrack as in the silhouettes, and in this realm, it reigns petals.
Below the crowns, black and white hold the ground, with a tie pinned with chains, shirts with tulle sleeves, a dress paved with leather discs and a leather jacket whose collar is perforated like lace. The bodies themselves become distorted gardens. Green stems wind over a torso as a second anatomy, a cloud of mesh swells from gold to blue behind a mask of petals and opens at the back on a white tulle gown, daisy-shaped modules lock into chain mail, and playing cards cover one dress while hearts, clubs and spades in acrylic harden into a cuirass. The finale turns the silhouettes into fertile soil, bouquets bursting. Petal to the mettle.
The season is called Petal Rebellion. Kei Ninomiya once more teams up with the Japanese florist Makoto Azuma. The flowers are real, so this armour is fragile, and it is not built to shut the world out. It shelters and it gives: every barrier opens onto a bloom. The riot is gentle, and the only weapon on show is the offering one makes to someone loved.
Armours of amour. Pearls and petals and bows, worn to feel brave. Those lucky enough to attend watch the realm linger around the venue, kept alive by guests dressed as its citizens, a marvellous ecosystem fading slowly into the city.
