Terumasa Nakajima worked at Dries Van Noten and Issey Miyake, so it tracks that the designer knows how to work with color and fabric. This season he began his second Telma show on a decidedly darker note than last time, with a sleek showing of glossy black coats that swished under the spotlights as a string orchestra played frantically over the speakers.
The most beautiful parts of this collection were the metallic details and the embroidery—the shiny threads, sometimes exquisitely sewn into penny-sized dots that caught the light so that from afar they looked like sequins. Elsewhere the outlines of tigers were embroidered into sheer white lace that was truly artful—the designer explained it was made by a manufacturer of leavers lace, one of the finest forms of the material available. “I had a fateful encounter with a leavers lace company that I once worked with when I was a student in Antwerp, and I was able to use them again,” he explained after the show.
Around the midway point, however, the same issues Nakajima had last season resurfaced and the show began to lose momentum. Seemingly unrelated colors, fabrics, and silhouettes were jostling for attention, and some less successful ideas crowded the mix. The faux furry bags, though on-trend with the wider embrace of fluffiness on the European runways, looked cheap, while the star appliqués hung heavily around the bottoms of dresses like leftover Christmas decorations. Others, like the cherry blossom print silk pajama blouses, the robust tweed trousers, and sleeveless dresses were interesting enough. By themselves these pieces may well look good on the hanger in-store, but Nakajima has not yet mastered how to bring everything together for a compelling runway statement.
Still, Nakajima deserves his flowers. Though he would benefit from editing down and focusing his ideas, there’s charm and thoughtfulness woven through his eclecticism. His prints use a water-free printing and dyeing process called “Forearth,” developed by the Japanese company Kyocera, for instance. Plus, you can tell that he considers his customers. “I always think about silhouettes that make the wearer look beautiful,” he said.
