Consciousness

The new fashion shaking up the ordinary

Kunihiko Morinaga

From ANREALAGE’s 2016 Spring-Summer Collection, “Reflect.” A colorful pattern emerges when you take a picture with flash on a smart phone. The garment is made with a special material developed in partnership with a company that created “retroreflecting material” for use on traffic signs and safety wear.

I have taken on the challenge of attempting to capture the dual nature of “real and unreal” in a single garment. When I think of the “unreal,” I don’t think of some fantasy world divorced from our reality; instead I think of those things buried underneath the everyday “real.” My clothing designs start from doubting the phenomena and events that we see and take for granted.

“Reflect,” from ANREALAGE’s 2016 Spring-Summer Collection, is a good example. It’s a piece that brings forth different textiles and colors when photographed with a smart phone’s flash than when viewed with the naked eye. This idea was born when I took another look at the idea of “reflection.” Reflection is where emitted light bounces back unchanged, but I thought that if something different bounced back instead, you could approach the act of “seeing” from a new angle.

I think a lot of people put the most emphasis on looks — “cute,” “fashionable” — when they choose clothing. But I don’t believe that’s the only way fashion affects people. It can also excite and surprise by defying the conventional wisdom of what you see and expressing the non-physical. In order to find the “way to connect to a world through fashion” that only I can do, I try and connect everything I see in my everyday life to fashion designs.

Breaking down the wearer’s preconceived notions should connect with noticing a fashion’s fresh appeal and values. I intend to continue making clothes that allow the wearer to become aware of what they weren’t conscious of before putting on the outfit.