Pearly Kings, walking home in the rain, a chorus of choirboys, and a heady dose of nostalgia mixed with just a dash of melancholy. The soundtrack at Kunihiko Morinaga’s show for Anrealage Homme tonight was an evocative choral reworking of The Blue Hearts’s circa-1990 hits “Aozora” (blue sky), and “Too Much Pain.” The endless runway which ran along the perimeter of the Chichibu Rugby Ground had been covered in puddles of water that splashed lightly as the models made their way around.
As at last season’s show, it was bathed in pink light. Everything Morinaga did that followed was present and correct; this was a triumph of a finale for Tokyo Fashion Week, the kind of nourishing show that you spend all week hoping for. Rich with detail, there was plenty to pore over.
Colors were bold: bubble gum pink, baby blue, deep purple, and bright red and orange, that nonetheless felt harmonious. And that’s to say nothing of the embroidery and embellishment that adorned half the pieces: lashings of pearls, beads, stitching and buttons that added dimension and texture. An unrestrained and beautiful sense for color and embroidery is emerging as a defining code of Morinaga’s menswear, alongside the chunky (and charmingly childish) knits.
This time the latter had incorporated intarsia words including “Friend” (aww) and “Homme Alone” (lol). Most memorable was a pastel pink sweater that had “Made in Harajuku” on the back, with a knitted picture of the fashion district’s iconic crossing and the word “Home” underneath. It served as a scrapbook of memories.
“The main driving force of the brand is the nostalgia and sentimentality of memories, and this collection is a very light, fresh, pop, and warm presentation of that,” Morinaga said backstage after the show. It stretched back across a landscape of vintage menswear and fashion references, from ’90s Guy Fieri flame print (that was actually flame knit) on Bermuda shorts, colorful knitted patches that recalled American varsity jackets from the 1950s (a carryover from last season), and the Westwood punk of the ’70s in the superglued spiky hair, while the mother-of-pearl buttons called to mind the Pearly Kings and Queens of Victorian London. Loveliest of all were the pieces that evoked the innocence of childhood: as well as the aforementioned knits, there were delicate appliqués of flowers on a coat sleeve, and the colorful cross-stitch and beads sewn across a white cotton pajama shirt and pants.
It’s rare we see the wholesome side of boyishness spotlighted like this, and there’s a special kind of masculine vulnerability about Anrealage Homme that adds to its appeal and relevance. “I wanted to go back to childhood, a pure time when everything appears sparkly,” said Morinaga. “We might have been immature, but we saw the world in a way that easily surpasses what we take for granted today.
”.
