Anrealage: UV Fashion At Paris Fashion Week
If there is one thing you can rely on this past fashion month it’s a gimmick or stunt designed to get the fashion world talking, however, most have in fact fallen flat on their faces. After the great success of Coperni’s Paris Fashion Week runway performance at the tail end of last year, numerous fashion houses have sought to replicate the virality the moment featuring Bella Hadid caused. The problem is, however, that many are only seeking clicks instead of presenting an idea of real merit. That was until the Anrealage FW23 show at Paris Fashion Week yesterday.
This new show is not the first, nor will it likely be the last, time that designer Kunihiko Morinaga has chosen to experiment with colour-changing photochromic properties and explore the connection between fashion and technology, speaking to Italian Vogue, "I think that there is both a science technology and a human technology in technology. I am interested in making clothes by crossing over these two different technologies. I think that in any age, it is important to maintain a close relationship with the technology of that specific age. Combining the technology made by man's hands and the high technology made by the latest machines may be our future task.”
Anrealage FW23
Daniele Oberrauch
Anrealage FW23
Daniele Oberrauch
For this particular show, Morinaga decided to investigate the concept of Umwelt, which states that the world and our minds are inseparable since our minds interpret the world and organisms in front of us. To put it simply, it is about the world not necessarily being as we interpret it.
As models arrive on the stage wearing beautifully tailored coats two UV-emitting tubes were passed up and down the models and, as the light passed in front of the items of clothing, their pattern was revealed to the audience. The garments went through a transformation in front of the audience's very eyes. Seemingly, not everything was going to be as they had anticipated. The show raises questions on how we really interpret and perceive fashion, the clothes we wear and our relationship with them.
Furthermore, not only was the show a moment of technological genius, but it also offered a refreshingly functional collection of ready-to-wear pieces (well, so long as you don’t actually have to use a UV tube in order to wear them every day!). Bold and colourful yet balanced, Morinaga has offered a myriad of items that enliven any wardrobe.
