PARIS FASHIONWEEK SPRING-SUMMER 2009
PARIS, October 3, 2008 /FR/ – In her shift of inspiration from the 1950s to sci-fi already started last season with a collection themed around the aesthetics of the movie “Blade Runner”, Junko Shimada is clearly renewing her house’s DNA.
The collection she sent on the runway this afternoon was full of creativity, in a way never seen before at this house, both her inspiration and message in all its nuances clearly showed through in the futuristic presentation. The finishings were absolutely perfect, in the house’s tradition, with the added value of perfectly crafted accessories (shoes and headgear).
Here is the possible story behind the runway show: the catwalk looked like a corridor in a spaceship divided in two zones, one where neon lights came from the floor, and the other where the light came from the ceiling on a black floor. In the background, a row of low-hanging bell-shaped glass containers were carrying growing grass as a celebration of life which needs to be preserved. The futuristic set imagined by Pierre Guillaume and Mathieu Massat of Bowling Club in collaboration with Junko Shimada was clear and sharply combining the futuristic vision from the 20th century, with today’s concerns about eco-friendly concerns.
The collection sent on this runway, clearly blends, in total symbiosis with the set, cyber and organic elements in an extremely original vision. Black and white are present, like in most futuristic collections in the season, but they are escorted here by colours: bright, fluorescent, vibrating tones enhancing the resolute positive way of looking at a future in which life can persist, and prove pleasurable and graceful.
Some shoes for instance, are an interpretation of a ballerina’s stage shoes, here staying miraculously upright, as if floating in the air thanks to a high heel made of a triangle of see-through plexiglas. The result is stunning : delicately girly, but giving the models a strong way of walking, they express a new equilibrium in the way they assert femininity, both graceful and firm.
Other accessories also also need a special mention like all the headgear pieces made of rhodoid for a futuristic treatment evoking other animals: shrimps, fish as if a new surrealistic vision was born. The ducks and geese printed on some dresses celebrate the delicacy of life and respect for it in the elaborate tradition of Asian natiuralistic paintings reinterpreted for today.
See-through plastic pants are worn over another layer of clothing, while the shiny aspect of vinyl is obtained through an induction on other pants of Klein blue.
Many looks in the collection would deserve a full description, many pieces of garment and many accessories too. But it lmight be enough to say here that Junko Shimada and her team have managed to do a collection which could be called “The Little Mermaid on a Space Misssion”, without being ever anecdoctic or laughable. The clothes here are fun but the work and reflexion about them are serious. Fashion might appear as frivolous to some people, when it reaches this level of technicity and aesthetics, it can be called a genuine re-creation and confine to art.
JEAN PAUL CAUVIN
Photos courtesy of Junko Shimada
Quality craft holds too little value to the general populace, in a world full of the cheaply mass produced. Soon they will see, soon people will realize the importance of it especially as the dollar stretches to the value of 0 and holding onto every last dime becomes more and more important.