The Line—Saudi Arabia’s proposal for a street-less, carless linear city in the middle of the desert—looks like concept art for a Denis Villeneuve movie. It includes a mirrored 100-mile-long skyscraper measuring 650 feet wide and 1,600 feet high, and work has reportedly already begun on this sci-fi mecca that carves through the sand, with the aim of housing 9 million people.
CFCL designer Yusuke Takahashi had been pondering the Line for spring, struck by the contrast between the bold, metallic slice of urban development and its arid surroundings. As a committed functionalist and tech nerd (Takahashi has always embraced computer programming in CFCL’s production processes, turning out seamless knitted garments that minimize waste), it led him down a futuristic path for the new season. He christened his typically taut seventh collection New Land—though he was careful not to neglect the human touch. “I feel it’s impossible for AI to catch up with human creativity,” he said in a preview the day before his show.
Cognizant, too, of the need for his largely recycled nylon, technical knitwear to have a lighter profile for summer, what with the planet heating up, Takahashi focused on adding cotton and linen to his synthetic mixes. The collection had a looser, more laid-back feel as a result, segueing from smart ribbed tube dresses and sculpted tailoring layered over Lurex second-skin knits into roomy sweaters, wide-leg pants, and sheer A-line dresses. Polished and comprehensive, it was no surprise to hear Takahashi’s considered approach is already paying dividends: Sales in 2023 across wholesale and DTC are already triple what they were in 2022, according to the relatively new deputy CEO and COO Naohiko Matsuura.
The so-called human element came via rectangular metallic sequins. Hand-applied to CFCL’s signature dense knits, they gave the closing section of the show a spark that had perhaps been missing in previous seasons, chiming with the delicate aluminum houseplants that had been dotted around the Palais de Tokyo’s haute galerie. Those plants (the work of Japanese artist Toshihiko Mitsuya) had been partly chosen to draw attention to the metallic nature of the embellishments, just as the music, a fusion of traditional Indian tabla drums laid over an electronic soundscape, harked back to the human-versus-machine theme. As usual, Takahashi had it all figured out.
