Paris Menswear Design Directions: Issey Miyake, Walter van Beirendonck and Henrik Vibskov

Walter Van Beirendonck's abstract, painterly design for a voluminous shirt, part of his SS18 menswear collection in Paris. Cover picture of Issey Miyake finale and all photographs by Elli Ioannou. Tap pictures for full-screen, slideshow

We look at three fashion designers with outstanding new menswear collections, showing the way forward for Spring/Summer 2018. While Japanese creative director Yusuke Takahashi's collection at Issey Miyake was full of billowing tunics inspired by the desert, Belgian Walter Van Beirondonck's was dominated by bold colour and abstract, graphic designs while Danish designer Henrik Vibskov took us into the fantasy world of sleep with vivid prints of charming monsters and summery stripes. Story and photographs by Elli Ioannou

Full sleeves and deep blue cotton at Issey Miyake

THE aesthetic of Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake, headed by creative director Yusuke Takahashi, makes a strong contrast to the work of Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendock and Danish designer Henrik Vibskov. Yet their menswear collections have at their core a shared design approach with the emphasis firmly on the creative process at the heart of their collections, a method of working more traditionally associated with art. The treatment and exploration of techniques used in developing new ideas and fabrics is subtle at Issey Miyake while the mixed prints at Henri Vibskov are graphic and the bold silhouettes at Walter Van Beirendonck are like pieces of Pop Art. Both Van Beirendock and Henrik Vibskov use the design process to express their views on subcultures, human behaviour and identity. They take an artistic approach to their design and they like to create an intervention or disruption of the ‘societal norm’ presenting collections akin to conceptual installations.

These designers take an artistic approach and like to create a disruption of the societal norm presenting collections more akin to conceptual art than fashion. 

Overall, the designers included strong directions that were seen at the SS18 collections in Paris and Milan that will be stand-out themes for next spring. Retro references ran through runways, exploring the 1980s, with high-waisted pants and voluminous parkas and suits with padded shoulders mixed with shirts decorated with strong prints and patterns. Sportswear was a feature including leggings, over sized pieces and performance clothing. Exotic motifs and brilliant colours were integral to the current zeitgeist. Stripes featured in in every shape and form ~ vertical, horizontal and diagonal on suits, shirts and sweaters. Socks were also a design accessory worn with sandals or lace-up shoes and long shorts.

 Long, vivid socks & check shorts
at Walter Van Beirendonck

Through the Desert was the overarching theme of Issey Miyake's spring/summer 2018 collection, held in the baking courtyard of the Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris. The inspiration was a journey into the desert where lightweight fabrics and fluid designs would be needed. The house of Issey Miyake manages to maintain it's signature intricate designs while simultaneously exploring subtle yet new techniques. These are fused with a contemporary look to deliver a consistently sophisticated line that is always unmistakably Issey Miyake.

Issey Miyake maintains the house's signature intricate designs while simultaneously exploring subtle yet new techniques.

Fluid tunics with marbled patterns at
Issey Miyake

Like brushstrokes with variations of tones, the Issey Miyake SS18 men's collection includes earthy colours mixed with neutrals and midnight blues. The layered, billowing shapes float in the breeze and are made of textured cottons, linens and polyester using both traditional and innovative fabric treatment. Part of the Issey Miyake oeuvre are the house's signature techniques such as dyeing and shrinking garments, with materials such as jacquard woven with wool, polyester and cotton. The salt-shrinking techniques used in this collection created rippling patterns like water on sand. Creative director Yusuke Takahashi said he went to the desert in the United Arab Emirates which inspired his latest work, the shifting of light across the dunes and stretches of parched earth gave him the ideas for the palette and patterns of the collection. Highlights include beautifully cut khaki suits and dark brown wrap shirts and wide pants, clasped at the ankle in shrunken cotton. There were dashes of colour like the deep, indigo blue of fluid summer tops and jackets and sunset coloured orange collarless shirts recalling nightfall in the desert. The flowing printed tunics and shirts were patterned with marbled designs on light, fluid fabrics.



Brilliant colour and pattern worn with long wigs
 at Walter Van Beirondonck caption

While Walter Van Beirendonck's SS18 show was called Owls Whisper, it was anything but quiet. A blazing yellow runway and matching theatre curtains were set in an industrial garage on a searingly hot day during fashion week and a heatwave in Paris last month. The accessory most used by the steaming guests was the Spanish fan, or the invitation waved in the torpid air. But the hot temperature simply added to the sultry and mysterious mood of the show. There was a nod to David Bowie with long wigs in pastel green, blue and yellow and painted faces in graphic, theatrical make-up. The collection included strong colours in orange, green and metallic gold with matching boots and shoes, sure to be very desirable accessories.  The soundscape of the Paris show was suitably dark and mysterious, with “The Pure and the Damned” by Oneohtrix Point Never, featuring Iggy Pop. The bold colours and shapes of the designs included vivid, voluminous raincoats with cartoonish, oversized sleeves mixed with tailored shorts, brightly patterned knee high socks and gold and green shoes. Tailored and checked ensembles with deconstructed jackets were mixed with sports leggings and shiny fabrics and patterns.

Walter Van Beirendonck uses fashion to explore ideas about society, the universe and nature, all delivered with a unique sense of humour.

Painted faces, mullet wig and deconstructed
check suit at Walter Van Beirondonck

Stand out looks included the jackets and shirts with designs of Picassoesque faces in colourful fabrics with the all of the models sporting the mullet wigs. There were also eccentric padded tops showing built-up abs and pecs and enormous parkas with sawtooth-pattern panelling, suggesting crocodiles and dinosaurs. The sporty leggings and metallic jackets made the models seem like Japanese anime figures. One design had two orange pattens that did look like owl’s eyes in the dark. There were interesting check suits, several with deconstructed arms and shoulder pads. This was mixed up with bomber jackets and tailored jackets with the mysterious, painterly panelled faces.

Walter Van Beirendonck originally graduated from the Royal Art Academy in Antwerp with Dirk Van Saene, Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Marina Yee in the early 1980s, when they became known as the Antwerp Six. Since 1983, Van Beirendonck has created his own collections inspired by art, literature, nature and ethnic influences. His unusual colour combinations and graphic design are keys to his fashion work. He has a long and varied career, including designing the costumes for U2, working on exhibitions and magazines. The designer uses the medium of fashion to make visual statements exploring society, the universe and nature delivered with his unique sense of humour.

Stripes and flowing shirts and trousers
at Henrik Vibskov

Henrik Vibskov opens his fashion shows with performance art that is often a witty visual statement about the new collection. His most recent show in Paris, called the Great Chain of Sleepers was presented at the L’école de Médecine courtyard. It provided the ideal backdrop, the ordered 18th Century neo-classical columns contrasting with his avant-garde clothes. The process of creating a collection was the focal point of the storytelling. As part of the set design, black pillows with ‘sleepers’ written on them were tied to tall wooden poles, with open books beneath each one, romantically being blown by the wind. An array of men and women dressed in white lab coats unravelled the bundles to reveal ‘duvets’ of assorted graphic prints. They then began to hit them in the style of an Italian grandmother dusting her carpets on the line with a broom stick. The collection included both male and female looks with sporty taupe suits, red and white art smocks, striped pyjama shirts with extra sleeves, kimono-style brocade robes, caterpillar monster prints and models wearing under-eye masks. Sleep particularly in its disrupted state, lucid dreaming and body positions, insomnia and night monsters were all part of the SS18 inspiration. It all started with a performer falling asleep on one of Vibskov's projects that got him to explore sleeping from different angles.

Sleep particularly in its disrupted state, lucid dreaming and night monsters were part of Henrik Vibskov's SS18 inspiration.

Henrik Vibskov's show in the 18th Century courtyard of
 L’école de Médecine courtyard

As a fashion designer, Henrik Vibskov has now produced more than thirty men's collections plus women's ranges since he graduated from Central St. Martins sixteen years ago. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Mode Masculine and is currently the only Scandinavian designer on the official show schedule of the Paris Men's Fashion Week. As well as designing new collections twice a year, Vibskov is a drummer with his Mountain Yorokobu project, signed to Fake Diamond Records. Artists and musicians that have worn Vibskov's designs include Björk, The Arctic Monkeys, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand and Lou Reed. Vibskov has also exhibitited at MoMA in New York and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, ICA in London and has produced several large scale solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, and recently a  retrospective of his work at Designmuseo Helsinki in Finland.

Vibskov's charming caterpillar monsters wend
their way across tops in his SS18 show

Vibskov has also designed costumes for operas and performances, including collaborations with the Oslo Opera house and Brussels Opera house. He is currently Professor at DSKD and has given lectures and been a jury member at institutions such as Central Saint Martins in London, the IED in Madrid and the Antwerp Royal Acadamy of Fine Art. The multi-talented designer has won prizes for his work ranging from the Becks Student Future Prize in 2000 and three years later the New Name of the Year to the Danish Design Council Award in 2007 and an award from the Danish Arts Foundation in 2009. He also won the Söderberg prize, the highest value design prize in the world four years later and the Jury Prize at the Danish Fashion Awards in 2012. Last year, the Queen Of Denmark and the academy council from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts gave Vibskov the Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal.

Tap pictures for full-screen slideshow of the collections

Untamed curls on a model at Issey Miyake's show in Paris were part of the overall ethos of relaxed shapes and fluid volumes

 Layered, billowing shapes made of textured cottons at Issey Miyake

Dashes of colour like this deep, indigo blue for fluid summer jackets and trousers enlivened the neutral palette at Issey Miyake 

Yusuke Takahashi at Issey Miyake said the shifting of light across sand dunes and stretches of parched earth inspired the patterns of the collection.

Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

 Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

 Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18

Guests waiting for the Issey Miyake Menswear Collection show Paris SS18

After the Issey Miyake Menswear Collection Paris SS18 at the Pierre and Marie Curie University

Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear Collection Paris SS18

 Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear SS18 Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear SS18 Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear SS18 Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear SS18 Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck Menswear SS18 Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Fanning away the torpid air in a Parisian heatwave at Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection

 Designer Walter Van Beirendonck takes his bow at his SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

The industrial location in a garage at Walter Van Beirendonck SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

The folded duvet's at the opening of the Great Chain of Sleepers show at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

The duvet's being 'beaten' by performers at the opening of Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

 Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

 Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

The colourful sheets and duvets that were part of the set design at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Henrik Vibskov's showed menswear with womenswear at his latest show in Paris

Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Loosely pleated and striped tops at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Collection in Paris

Rotund, leather backpack at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Desirable round backpacks at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

 Demure from the flowing front and revealing at the back, Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Finale at Henrik Vibskov's SS18 Menswear Collection in Paris

Danish designer Henrik Vibskov watches as his SS18 Menswear Collection opens in Paris

 

Icosae's Urbane and Avant-Garde French Revolution

 

Brothers in arms, French designers Valentin and Florentin Glemarec. Portrait by Shoji Fuji. Cover picture and all other photographs by Elli Ioannou



We look at the rise of Icosae, an urbane yet avant-garde French label created by two young Parisian brothers, Valentin and Florentin Glémarec. The designers studied painting at the École du Louvre  and art informs all of their work. The spring 2018 collection offered a new vision of menswear at Paris fashion week, one that combines both the creative and conceptual, writes Antonio Visconti. Photographs of the SS18 collection by Elli Ioannou

Riveted studs and checked trousers
spell out Icosae in numbers

SINCE Icosae's launch three years ago, Valentin and Florentin Glémarec's collections have offered an exhilarating and seamless blend of urbane high fashion, sportswear and outstanding tailoring with a memorably sleek silhouette. The collections' fabrics and prints are created each season with original paintings by the designers. Parisian-born, the Glémarec brothers, may only be twenty-one and twenty-two years old but they have already made a name for their label. Independently funded, Icosae's sophisticated and sharp tailoring combined with a strong creative and cohesive vision has meant the label has a growing roster of clients including Paris' Le Printemps, New York concept store ODD and Barney's in Tokyo and Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong.

Valentin and Florentin studied Fine Arts at the prestigious École du Louvre before going on to study graphic design in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers (ENSAAMA decorative arts academy) and fashion design at the Atelier Chardon Savard school. Apart from their background in art, the designers say their great-grandfather, who was a tailor in Britain, is an important influence on their work. Tailoring is key to their designs, especially well-defined shoulders and structured shapes, their signature back cut and serial numbers on the jacket's lapels.

The suited yet relaxed vibe of the collection
was inspired by summer evenings in LA 

When the Glémarecs established the fashion label in 2014, they chose the name 'Icosae' that originates from the French word for the icosahedron, a twenty-faced geometric figure. They decided their collections would be produced in France and Belgium, as the designers want to use highly-skilled European ateliers. Their latest collection for SS18 was shown under the dramatic lighting of the famous Faust nightclub, located below the Pont Alexandre III in Paris and the collection was on the official Paris Fashion Week's schedule. Entitled the 'The world has music for those who listen', the range was full of Nouvelle Vague tailoring with a contemporary edge.

The collection was inspired by warm, glimmering Los Angeles nights with friends getting ready to go out at sunset. The designers wanted a relaxing theme that would suit a summer evening in LA when the skies are turning pink, a colour that runs as a leitmotif through the collection, the starry night reflected in glittering embroidery. Amid the beautifully-cut jackets were stone-washed jeans, unstructured bomber jackets, sweatshirts with spliced shoulders and prints from what Valentin Glémarecs describes as their "season Muse painting" on silk and wool coats. The jackets, both long and short, have details including rivets and an embroidery of a literal Heartbreaker motif. The designers referred to William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Le Fou, L'Amant and Le Poète found on sweatshirts.

 

Long jackets with embroidery, studs and
numbers on the lapel

The duo wanted to work on all aspects of the suit, as they believe it is one of the most difficult garments to make, as they take their inspiration mainly from tailoring. They even created a "constructed" parka, which is a sportswear piece but remade in a tailored style. Denim was used as a whole look, both raw or acid-washed with a focus on pink silk shirts and short jackets.

The word “Icosae” translated into numerology is used in the check-print of the suits, the collars and even make-up of the models. The brand detailing was included on the clothing, some with 2500 rivets, but the branding is almost invisible unless you are looking for it. The designers don't want Icosae in huge letters on the clothing, only where you can find it in the details.

The recurring serial numbers 82.141.814 ~  meaning Icosae ~ are hidden in the tartan pattern for the tailored jackets and even on the models’ faces. Valentin Glémarec says each collection they like to explore different techniques, this time using laser cutting, acid printing and mixing handcrafted elements like bullion wire embroidery and branded rivets.

Every season the brothers agree on a painting that will be the print of the season. This decidedly artistic side of the label, influenced by the Valentin and Florentin Glémarec's study of art at the Louvre, gives Icosae's collections that rare combination of desirable creativity along with wearable designs.

Tap on photographs for full-screen slide show

Tailored jackets with the special Icosae print and pastel pink jeans shown at the Spring 2018 collection in Paris were inspired by warm, summer nights in Los Angeles

 

Pale pink ran as a theme through the collection reflecting the inspiration of LA's sunset on summer evenings and starry skies recalled by the Louboutin glittering boots

A riveted, furry vest in mahogany added a dash of punk disruption to the sleek collection  

Acid-washed denim made a comeback with strong colours, studs and cut-offs combined with a shoulder-spliced black and white-striped leather jacket

Sequined gold boots gave the SS18 collection a rock star glamour that lifted the dark, long jackets

Silken white bomber jacket with checked trousers specially designed by the brothers



Beautifully cut long jackets with this season's signature print

 

Embroidered details on Icosae's collection of jackets

 

Dark denim rules with red stitching with a symbolic hearts and stars t-shirt and pearl pendant

 

The lunatic, the lover and the poet printed on a sweatshirt with spliced sleeves at the Icosae show at Paris' Faust nightclub

 

 

Yuima Nakazato: Digital Couture Creates Custom Design for All

The mystical haute couture presentation in Paris created by Yuima Nakazato, showing his vision for the future of a couture for all. Cover picture and all photographs by Elli Ioannou

Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato is part of a new generation of avant-garde couturiers showing on Paris' official haute couture schedule. This season, he presented a collection made entirely with his new technology creating digital couture that allows custom-designed clothes to be accessible to everybody, Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Reporting and photographs by Elli Ioannou

Designer Yuima Nakazato with his
digital couture clothes

NUMINOUS and otherworldly it may have been, but Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato's show in Paris, presented a revolutionary new technique that could make couture clothes available to all. The couturier has created a digital technology which could change fashion with made-to-measure clothes for people around the world. 

An informative film like a 1950s British documentary explained the concept and then showed 21st century holographic forms with runway models wearing the clothes appearing in a darkened space with mystical music, enhancing the sense of the dawn of a futuristic age. 

Yuima Nakazato purposely altered the format of the traditional runway show, that usually takes only a few minutes, to a longer presentation that included film, music, models and mannequins.

 

The designer wanted guests to have a more intimate connection to the designs and ideas behind the collection. "I used to do a lot of costume design and I still do a lot of design for the stage and recording artists," Nakazato explains. "Working and communicating with them directly and designing a piece just for them. When these artists wear my designs they are always very happy. It is quite different to designing something for mass production. I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone." But the designer says the big question was "how" to do this.

"I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone"

"Obviously haute couture is very expensive and mass production is very cheap. And the customer cannot communicate to the designer. So I thought technology could provide a solution and help realise my idea. So that was the staring point. When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life. Haute couture is the best design but as that is not possible for everyone, it is my aim to find a solution." 

Nakazato says his new technique is a breakthrough discovery in fashion technology. He uses a digital technique that creates a system where clothes are adaptable and grow with you ~ upwards or outwards ~ and that can incorporate wearable devices, be easily fixed and even be passed down to and adapted to your children. It sounds like the ultimate in sustainable dressing.

Riveted squares of

digitally cut fabrics

 make up Nakazato's

new designs

"I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away. The clothes become like another skin and you can even give it to your daughter, just changing the design and size."

This digital haute couture uses 3D techniques to produce garments for every type and shape of body. The nine different designs shown by Nakazato in Paris, were all created with digitally cut squares of fabric. 

Instead of a traditional fitting where the body is measured, the wearer is scanned through a device before numbered squares of digitally cut fabrics are riveted together to form a perfectly fitting piece. 

His new 1950s-inspired collection includes evening dresses and a version of Dior's classic Bar suit as well as jeans and a leather jacket ~ all created with digitally-cut squares of fabric. Nakazato said the major breakthrough was finding a way to use everyday fabrics like cotton, nylons and wool which are difficult to control using digital fabrication.

 "That was the most difficult part," he says. "But in the end we succeeded. We can design every type and shape of garment to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure. Digital fabrication is very useful mainly for PVC, rubber or plastic. But I wanted to use traditional fabrics and although these are hard to control using digital tools we found a way of doing it."

"Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread"

Custom-made clothes, particularly haute couture, are out of reach for most people. But Nakazato argues his technology would change that: “We want to create a world where everyone can have tailor-made garments. Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread." The designer has developed the technique in Japan with engineers, 3D designers and sculptors so clothes can be adjusted to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure.

"With this system we are now able to build all silhouettes imaginable," Nakazato says. "It is like creating a garment from a dress pattern but with even more flexibility." The designer has been working for six months on the new 3D clothes-making technique using natural materials like cotton and wool plus nylons. 

While the designer admitted that his work was very much at the experimental stage, he insisted that "future mass customisation" is possible. "There is still a lot of work by hand in putting the clothes together," Nakazato explains. "It is like technology and craftsmanship put together." The designer says that aesthetically his digital creations still had a long way to go to reach the perfection of classic haute couture which must be made by hand.

For his latest collection, Nakazato wanted to combine his new way of constructing textiles with the past so that they melded together. "We have a long term vision for the future as we develop and show the evolution each season," Nakazato says. "For this collection I chose the 1950s as the theme, which is an interesting era for me, because it is a very strong period for haute couture after the second world war. Couture gave a lot of energy to people with its elegance and drama. At the same time, the post-war era was also the starting point of mass production for jeans and bomber jackets. It is interesting that these things that are totally different but happened at the same time. "

"We have a long term vision for the future and we develop and show the evolution each season"



Yuima Nakazato with a bomber jacket

 and fitted coat using his new technology

The designer began to be interested in fashion as a student because at his high school in Japan they could choose to wear whatever they wanted, unlike most Japanese schools where a uniform is de rigueur. "I liked looking at fashion magazines ~ there was no Internet then ~ so we were reading magazines and seeing the "street snaps," a very typically Japanese part of culture with pictures of people standing on the street which I really liked." 

 But he decided that fashion would be his career after seeing the first Japanese designers graduating from the Royal Academy Antwerp in 2002. "I saw their graduate collections in the newspaper and they looked so colourful and interesting I was shocked. Seeing these designs changed me dramatically and inspired me to go into the fashion world more deeply and immediately I decided to do Antwerp's fashion degree as well."

Nankazato's show included film, music, models

and mannequins 

Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. "For this collection, I spoke to many different people including sculptors, architects and engineers to get inspiration and knowledge," he says.

"Afterwards, I shared it with the rest of the team and we started the research together, studying materials and textiles. But the vision and story is the most important part and then finding solutions with digital fabrication, 3D printers and stories from history." 

But ultimately the designer is looking for a way of creating fashion design that makes people feel happier. "That is why I would like the clothes of the future to all be unique and different as I think that makes everyone feel good. Right now we have to wear mass produced clothes because of the cost. But that is all changing with this new technology and it makes for a very interesting moment in fashion."

Tap on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato with his new creations in Paris

A model wearing Nakazato's digital couture dress

Guests at the Yuima Nakazato show take a closer look at his revolutionary new system of making unique garments

After Nakazato's haute couture show, guests examine the clothes on mannequins

A striking denim and pink gown made using Nakazato's technique of digitally-cut squares of fabric that fit the body

Leather riveted ensemble of trousers and jacket created with Nakazato's new technology

Elegant, fitted dress that seems both contemporary and related to Dior's New Look all made with Nakazato's digital technology

Fitted jacket and trousers created using designer Yuima Nakazato's riveted technique: "When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life."

Bomber jacket and longer tops on mannequins after the runway show. Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. 

Detail of the riveted jeans and pink squares showing Nakazato's technique

 "I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away."

 

Chanel Haute Couture Paris: Behind the Scenes of the Show

Take a look behind the scenes at Karl Lagerfeld's latest haute couture collection for Chanel in Paris, with Kristen Stewart, Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and Pharell Williams. We also see the Chanel atelier and the exquisite workmanship that creates this iconic fashion house's couture collections, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THIS season, the Eiffel Tower is the monument chosen to symbolise Chanel's new Autumn Winter 2017/18 haute couture show. Karl Lagerfeld created a 38-metre high version of the tower inside the Grand Palais, with wooden garden chairs set out beneath like a Parisian park. The designer pays tribute to Paris with a scene for his latest haute couture show designed to be like a beautiful autumn day. "It’s a vision of a revived Parisian woman, it is all about cut, shapes, silhouettes. Here the line is very delineated and graphic, it’s very modern," he explains. His Parisiennes step out in hats, wearing booties or thigh boots buttoned up high. This season the tweed jacket comes as a long tunic, or is cropped and double breasted; its sleeves are cambered or dressed with fingerless gloves and bouquets of feathers.

"In this collection, there are feathers treated like fur," says the designer. The designs are worn with domed or wraparound skirts, tubular dresses or wide-cut jumpsuits. The silhouette is graphic, supported by tweeds, mohair, and grey, black and white wools, autumnal palettes in navy blue, burgundy and green. The collection has long, straight volumes that flare into A-lines or contrast with rounded on voluminous coats, peplum jackets and frock coats with cinched waists. At the end of the second runway show, Karl Lagerfeld was awarded the Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris medal by Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris. This medal, that represents the highest distinction in the City of Paris, recognises his creativity and his impact creating Parisian fashion that has influenced design around the world.

Interview with Karl Lagerfeld: Chanel Haute Couture in Paris

Creative director of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, talks about why Paris is best known for high fashion and how the Eiffel Tower is the monument that best symbolises his new Autumn Winter 2017/18 haute couture show. Beneath the soaring glass dome of the Grand Palais, Chanel created a 38-meter high version of the tower, with wooden garden chairs set out beneath like a Parisian park, a runway designed to invite a leisurely stroll and a rediscovery of the city, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento 

Chanel's Eiffel Tower disappears among
the clouds. Photo: Olivier Saillant

DESIGNED by Gustave Eiffel for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest edifice built by man and symbolised the industrial era. It inspired many artists including the painter Robert Delaunay who visualised it with Neo-Impressionist and Cubist lines. Today, Karl Lagerfeld pays tribute to Paris with a scene for his latest haute couture show designed to be like a beautiful autumn day.

"It’s a vision of a revived Parisian woman, it is all about cut, shapes, silhouettes. Here the line is very delineated and graphic, it’s very modern," explains Karl Lagerfeld. His Parisiennes step out in hats, wearing booties or thigh boots buttoned up high. This season the tweed jacket comes as a long tunic, or is cropped and double breasted; its sleeves are cambered or dressed with fingerless gloves and bouquets of feathers.

 "In this collection, there are feathers treated like fur," says the designer. The designs are worn with domed or wraparound skirts, tubular dresses or wide-cut jumpsuits. The silhouette is graphic, supported by tweeds, mohair, and grey, black and white wools, autumnal palettes in navy blue, burgundy and green. The collection has long, straight volumes that flare into A-lines or contrast with rounded on voluminous coats, peplum jackets and frock coats with cinched waists.

At the end of the second runway show, Karl Lagerfeld was awarded the Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris medal by Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris. This medal, that represents the highest distinction in the City of Paris, recognises his creativity and his impact creating Parisian fashion that has influenced design around the world.

Alchemists of Minimalism: Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi

Alchemists at work at Palazzo Litta in Milan. Designers Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi of Mist-o examine their glass designs for Ichendorf.  Portrait by Ilaria Cilli

Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi create designs evoking the beauty of simplicity and a Zen-like purity of form. This Italian and Japanese duo discovered a common language and opened their studio, Mist-o, five years ago in Milan and Tokyo, aiming to create a cultural bridge between Europe and Asia. Today, their clients include iconic Italian brands such as Cappellini and Tod’s. Last year, they received the EDIDA Young Japanese talent award by Elle Decor Japan. Jeanne-Marie Cilento asks them 10 Questions about their life and work. Portraits by Ilaria Cilli at Palazzo Litta in Milan

Designers Noa Ikeuchi
& Tommaso Nani

ON a hot summer evening in Rome, standing high up on the grassy knoll of the Emperor Trajan's imperial forum, jazz music drifting up to the leafy crowns of maritime pines, Milanese designers look disdainfully across to the ancient exedra of the red-brick market below. Their Roman counterpart, Apollodorus of Damascus,Trajan's loyal architect, designed the market in the 2nd-century and its complex of grocers, apartments and the world's first shopping mall. The stylish Northern Italians are more interested in seeing their own new sleek designs exhibited in the great, vaulted hall, still strewn with ancient fragments of Corinthian columns and reliefs of ancient battles. Despite their Modernist forms, some of these 21st century pieces were hand-carved in Carrara marble, linking this new generation of sophisticated architects back to their forbears 2000 years ago. One of the designers who looked on with pleasure at this baroque party, held at the heart of the emperor's former Roman kingdom to celebrate the opening of a new Italian design exhibition, is Tommaso Nani. Warm and jovial in person and interested in everything around him, the designer creates pieces that are so stripped back to their essence they seem Japanese. And there is a strong element of Japan, as Tommaso Nani works with Noa Ikeuchi at their studio Mist-o in Milan and Tokyo.

Speaking to a keen audience in Milan
at their Palazzo Litta exhibition

The duo opened the design studio five years ago and their work includes slim, fine furniture and small, limited edition objects and interior design projects. Both Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi live between Japan and Italy, working in the two countries to develop their own design language. Even if their backgrounds are very different, they discovered a shared sensibility for the poetry of simplicity with a certain formal discipline combined with functionality. The designers work with artisans all over the world and they believe this working method enhances their understanding of local cultures. Today, their clients include well-kown Italian brands such as Cappellini, Ichendorf, Living Divani, Oluce and Tod’s. In 2016 they received the EDIDA Young Japanese talent award by Elle Decor Japan.

Noa Ikeuchi and Tommaso Nani
with their glassware designed for Ichendorf 

1. Where did you grow up and does this place inspire your creative work?

I grew up in Italy, and Noa in Japan and the cultures of our countries have been an important influence on both of us. The societies shaped each of our personalities in a very different way. I am much more a “city boy” ~  I grew up in Milan which is a big town that gives you a lot different influences, stress and forces you to live fast ~ more or less like every big city in the world. However, Noa grew up in the countryside, on the Izu Peninsula, South-West of Tokyo on the Pacific Coast, a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. It is set amid nature and, of course, life is slower and calmer. Later he moved to Tokyo before coming to Italy to study.

We have both been shaped by these different environments and our work is a reflection of that. The interesting thing is that we met when we were quite young and became good friends at around nineteen years old ~ an age when humans are still very receptive to stimuli, so we influenced each a lot with our different ways of being. Together we shaped our vision of the world and our way of seeing design. It is difficult to define ourselves, but in our work we are looking for a sort of delicacy mixed with a strictness and functionality that gives life to logical, simple shapes. We try to give them a unique character, and perhaps our designs can be seen as a sort of summation of our way of being.

 "In our work we are looking for delicacy mixed with a strictness and functionality"

The Mist-o exhibition of Ichendorf glassware
 at Palazzo Litta during Milan Design Week

2. Why did you choose design as your artistic metier?
If you are a curious person, design gives you the possibility to explore many different things and not to repeat the same day every day. Of course, there is a routine, but it is a profession in which you can learn many different things and it gives you the possibility to deal with various projects and situations. For example, you can be involved in designing small products hand-made by an old artisan, but also design products for the mass market that come from a big, technological machine. Or sometimes the project involves both of those things, starting with a primitively crafted object and ending up with an industrial product. Good design is not easy and is often much more complicated than this, but there is always a new journey at the start of every project.

3. How did you get your break into the design world and have your work manufactured and sold in stores or galleries? 

We started with the Salone Satellite in 2010 at the Milan Furniture Fair because it is a fantastic place for young designers to show their first projects and fresh ideas and show them to a large and cultured public. From that point, it took us some years to established our studio and to find the right companies who were interested in manufacturing our ideas, but in that period we kept doing research to feed our ideas and start shaping our design language. Mostly in the last few years we have worked with companies that produce and market our projects, but we are very interested in collaborating with galleries or editors, it is something we are looking for, especially to explore more deeply the cultural research behind a design.

Hand-weaving the Daydream Daybead,
designed by Mist-o for Living Divani.
Photo: Alberto Strada

4. How did you and Noa meet?  How has working together had effected your design careers so far?
We both studied in Milano and we first met at university, we were class mates. We became friends and for the first year we were just close friends, and after a while we realised we have similar aesthetic sense, and that we are both very curious about each others culture and very interested to see things from a different perspective. We came from places that are almost polar opposites, so this mix was perfect to fulfil our curiosity. This was the experience that had the greatest impact on our design career, not a specific person or a training but this very personal and unique exchanging of culture.

5. Today, your studio is based between Milan and Tokyo ~ what does each city give you creatively?
If you are curious, both cities give you have many opportunities to experience and to learn beautiful things. Both cities are full of energy, and both have a sort of very unique intimate atmosphere. Milan is a city that is quite small in size but the quality of living and the atmosphere is very European and yet it feels international. Tokyo is a huge city, but it’s replete with small things, tiny gaps between buildings, narrow streets, short distances between very different districts… So I always find this contrast very unique and fascinating, and it also gives you a feeling of warmth.

"Tokyo is a huge city, but it’s replete with small things, tiny gaps between buildings, narrow streets, short distances between very different districts…"


Ichendorf Tequila Sunrise Carafe by Mist-o
2013-2016. Photo: Aberto Strada

6. Do you find your creative process when designing is more rational or instinctive?
It is very instinctive at the beginning, we start quickly from a rough idea without thinking too much of designing the right shape or doing something pretty. We try to keep a sort of fresh approach. But later our process is very rational and logical, and we try to find the essence of a design, in order to give life to a clear concept, and not just to design a minimal object. We look for a deep and comprehensible simplicity. We also have to be very clear and logical to understand each other, we both work on all projects together so we need to eliminate all the unnecessary things that creates "noise" in the process.

7. What do find the most challenging aspect of working as designers? And what is the most challenging aspect of your work technically?
The most challenging aspect is also the most interesting ~  to keep the uniqueness, freshness and even naive approach to design, in order not to repeat ourselves. And this means you have to be extremely curious and you should have broad cultural interests and a fascination with many different things to feed your creativity. Technically the most challenging aspect is that design is not only drawing a pretty shape, but it is always a new journey with a lot of unknown endings. For example, new technologies and new production methods, different budgets and contracts plus your relationship with the clients are not always the same. Each time we have to be very quick to understand a situation or a context and learn to deal with the people involved. If we take on a project we want to know as much as we can before we start designing, in order to make the journey as smooth as possible. We are still quite young and I think the more our careers grow the more we learn, but with design there will always be unknown and unexpected situations to deal with.

 "We try to keep the uniqueness, freshness and even naive approach to design, in order not to repeat ourselves"

Fruit bowl prototype by Mist-o designed in 2011
Photo: Alberto Strada

8. What part of the designing and making process gives you the most happiness? 
Every part of the design process has something that gives us happiness: when you come up with some good ideas or when you solve some problems with the design, or when we take the pictures of the final products, and many other things ~ we are passionate about our work! But also being a duo as designers sometimes can also be frustrating, for example when one of us thinks he come up with some great ideas and the other doesn’t agree…We have to put our ego aside and find a common ground and it is not always easy. But most of the time this leads to unexpected and better solutions. It is probably the part of the job that every creative duo has to deal with.

9. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday or is the process more fluid?
Our team is geographically spread all over the world for most of the year, so the work process is well organised. For example, when we are in different countries we make a Skype call every day (early morning in Italy, late afternoon in Japan) to update on the what has happened during the day and to decide about what are the most important daily tasks. On the other hand, the creative process is fluid and it takes time, although you always have to deal with deadlines and appointments so the process is not random and programming is crucial.

 

"Design is a discipline that if it is done well and with deep thought and research can offer positive improvements to life"

 

Mist-o's Atlantis Flower Vase designed for Cappellini.
Photo: Alberto Streada

10. In our digital age, what does design give us as an art form?
Design is something with a very wide meaning and it can be applied to almost every aspect of life, both physical and digital, but the real issue is what kind of culture you bring to it, which is that certain uncontrollable thing that gives the elegance and the character to a design.
In any age, good design should improve our lives.  Through design you try to solve things: you try to find a solution to both very small problems to big issues dealing with social and economic hardships. Design is a discipline that if it is done well and with deep thought and research can offer positive improvements to life.