Does living in the internet expand and free your consciousness, or extract and contain it? This very contemporary question was anticipated 31 years ago in the cyberpunk anime Ghost In The Shell, a book and film that connected many of the ideas originating in William Gibson’s Neuromancer (by way of Blade Runner) with The Matrix trilogy. Today the designer Kunihiko Morinaga transported one of Ghost author Masamune Shirow’s most interesting concepts, thermoptic camouflage, into real life during his Anrealage show.
Morinaga and his team spent six months perfecting the design and programming of the LED garments so that they transformed into very close facsimiles of their background runway projections. This made them seem to ‘disappear.’ The chameleon-like quality of his dresses might not yet be precisely perfect, but Morinaga’s translation of science fiction into fashion fact was still highly impressive.
Once the models were walking, and therefore out of matching position with their backgrounds, they ‘reappeared again’ as the closing section of LED dresses was used to transmit reams of green on black code or more traditional worn patterns. Before these digital showstoppers appeared, Morinaga presented an analogue collection that was futuristic and thoughtful.
He amplified elements of body armor and robotics into ornate avatar silhouettes presented in Fortnite colorways in blurred neon patterns. Prosthetically empowering outerwear was surfaced with more code and elegant reams of circuitry. Yet he also inserted glitchy fragments of detail sampled from pre-digital counterculture: ditsy floral prairie shirts, a one-legged fringed jean, and clownish kick-hemmed striped pants. These hippie details were there, he explained via translator, to insert a dose of human spirit in contrast with the collection s machine essence. This essence was further intensified by the facial jewelry and metal nails that resembled interface hardware as much as cyberpunk aesthetic embellishments.
A few of the pieces contained smaller LED insertions and were, Morinaga said, commercially available: these beamed the Ghost In The Shell logotype but could be programmed to display anything the customer desires. This was another technologically advanced and creatively soulful collection from Anrealage.
