On the final day of Fashion Week, CFCL founder Yusuke Takahashi presented Knitwear: Concreteness, a collection inspired by Jean Arp’s biomorphic sculptures and his philosophy of pursuing natural forms over figurative interpretation. In the spirit of equality, the designer also nodded to Arp’s wife, the textile artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp, in graceful A-line dresses with perforated, terraced sections—a standout in a strong show set to live chamber music by the Danish act TLF Trio.
“I discovered I shared Arp’s perspective, because he wanted to create concrete artwork, not copy nature,” Takahashi explained backstage before the show. “I wanted to keep a distance from designing clothes as a medium for expressing something instead of updating them as a tool for going out and facing society and its realities.
Given that the world wilts a little more every summer, the designer noted that he had begun to wonder whether his iconic looks, inspired by traditional Japanese pottery, had begun to feel heavy. “I wanted to do something lighter and more transparent, like updating from ceramic to glass,” he said.
CFCL’s signature shapes were all here, now reiterated in a translucent, mint-hued knit in recycled polyester veiled by a continuous overlay of sheer nylon, for example—a tribute to the smooth, acrylic sculptures of the Japanese artist Mariko Mori, the designer said. The Pottery Swell dress appeared constructed from three different types of recycled polyester, blending relief and fluidity with an almost opaline finish (for that, the designer name-checked the Art Nouveau artist Émile Gallé). Pieces in organic cotton sourced from the Panduma region of central India were hand-dyed according to traditional Arimatsu techniques, a process that resulted in cloud-like finishes in pale pink or gray. To amp up movement, knitted toile dresses were threaded with cascades of “fluffy” tassels in polyester and nylon with a moonglow sheen.
While some experiments were less convincing—a boxy pink suit and a transparent jogger come to mind—there were lots of pieces, from swingy tops to breezy dresses and versatile jackets, to keep CFCL’s growing base dropping by.
As the first Japanese apparel company certified as a B Corp, CFCL is gunning for a 2030 target for achieving carbon neutrality and 100% certified materials. Spring’s new partnership with Veja trainers produced tonal variations of the brand’s popular sneakers—and marked CFCL’s debut collaboration with another B-Corp certified company.
