Tokyo Fashion Week’s official schedule came to a close on Saturday night with the birth of something new. Anrealage, the Tokyo-based brand by Kunihiko Morinaga, known for its futuristic approach and geometric designs, used the finale slot to launch its new menswear label under the name Anrealage Homme. The show was held on the circular upper floor of the Telecom Center Building in Tokyo Bay, and the interior of the huge space was bathed in pink light.
When Morinaga started Anrealage in 2003, when he was just 23, he designed not with distinct seasonal themes in mind, but with the overarching idea of creation as a form of prayer. It was this communion with design that Morinaga tried to rekindle for his debut menswear outing, and the show was soundtracked by a hymn-like choral melody.
Expectations from the crowd were high. Morinaga is a seasoned designer who has a decade of experience showing in Paris for Anrealage womenswear, where his unique presentations wow with astounding technological innovations. Anrealage Homme, in contrast, seems to be about good old-fashioned craft. There were no color-changing fabrics or floating Doraemon balloons at this first menswear outing, but there were plenty of inventive clothes.
Colorful knitted sweaters had intarsia details to make them look like varsity jackets and tweed jackets were dotted with gold buttons that recalled the military style of Japanese schoolboy uniforms, while the softly fuzzy shorts, tartan kilts, and knitted dresses brought a sense of progressive masculinity to the mix. This wasn’t the lazy “genderless staples” we see too much of nowadays (which is often code for clothes that are too boring to offend anyone), but instead felt like a genuinely fresh menswear proposition—though there will no doubt be plenty of Anrealage’s women customers who find it appealing, too.
“I wanted to create a new image of men, with curves, colors, decorative elements, and a sense of fantasy,” Morinaga said after the show. He had also intended to recall the golden heyday of Harajuku style in the early 2000s, and succeeded in transporting us back there, if only for a moment. The buttoned suits in the first and last looks, impossibly detailed and reminiscent of vintage Chanel, were clear standouts. “They took a very long time, and they were really made in a couture-like way,” he said.
There was a lot for the eyes to grapple with in this feast of texture and color, but Morinaga is a master at making lots of busy details somehow feel cool and cohesive. The younger generation in Tokyo could learn a lot from watching him do his thing.
