Japan Fashion Week S/S 2010: IZREEL
November 24th, 2009 | Published in Event Report
Words by Maria. Photos by Alex Ramon.
IZREEL designer Kazuhiro Takakura created a beguiling and mysterious line up for his Spring/Summer 2010 collection. His idea of the suit being a man’s armour led him to draw inspiration from ancient Japanese warrior armour styles such as the Ō-Yoroi. The reference was most obvious in an ensemble (pictured, left) that consisted of a cuirass breastplate covered with suiting fabric and a skirt piece made in the lamellar style, the lower plates also covered with suiting fabric.
Blocks of colour adorned the hems of black suit jackets and the waistbands of the accompanying trousers in pinks and turquoises. The resulting effect was very different from your usual suit, yet very modern and sleek, making it an easy wear for the audaciously stylish business man. Black leggings were worn almost always underneath shorts, a style that seemed to be popular this season in Japan, as it was also present in other designers’ collections such as G.V.G.V. and Guts Dynamite Cabarets. Sequins, also popular this season, made their appearance in Takakura’s collection in vests and jackets, creating a fun, even cheeky look, for the days off of that stylish business man.
A few of the more casual looks were too busy, with stars and some almost jester-looking rhombus patterns making their way onto Bermuda shorts and sleeves. But Takakura did successfully combine his mainly black, white, pink, and turquoise palette into an array of looks that carried a sense of confidence and mystery–this given by fabric motifs in black and white reminiscent of old labyrinth illustrations, and also enlarged versions of the classic herringbone pattern. The aura of mystery was further reinforced by Takakura’s last allusion to Ō-Yoroi: an admiringly chilling procession of mempo (masks) in sleek black worn my all the models during the finale.
