Japanese creation stands out in Paris with Junya Watanabe, Noir and Comme des Garçons

Parisian Fashion Week vibrated on Saturday, thanks to the spectacular creations of Japanese designers. On the sixth day of the women’s ready-to-wear fashion shows dedicated to spring-summer 2025, three of the most emblematic houses of the Japanese avant-garde stood out with sculptural silhouettes and sophisticated constructions. Namely Junya Watanabe, Noir by stylist Kei Ninomiya and Comme des Garcons.

In a 1980s disco atmosphere with, as a soundtrack at full decibels, I feel love by Donna Summer in Sam Smith’s version, Junya Watanabe sends an army of neo-Amazons parading on the catwalk in the early morning in hyper-protective shell outfits. To create his collection for next summer, the designer immersed himself in the world of motorcycles, recovering the complete panoply of the biker, which he dissects to recompose it into daring looks for dark lady futuristic.

It sources its supplies in particular from the Japanese equipment manufacturer Degner, which has served motorcycle and racing enthusiasts since 1987. Leather suits, nylon bags, tires, gloves, reflective materials, straps, non-slip rubber and other accessories… The stylist throws nothing away, cutting the whole thing up into small pieces or meticulously deconstructing it, to ingeniously reassemble all these elements like a puzzle.

Under his magic wand, these sections of different technical materials thus brought together are transformed into solid patchwork coats in Art Deco style. With multi-pocketed zipped bags, he creates parachute dresses or oversized jackets, while a kind of thermal blanket makes it possible to create superb shimmering silver ball gowns, and protective mats act as peplums in crinoline dresses.

“I think abnormal clothing is necessary in our daily lives. This collection was created by recycling modern everyday materials and using sculptural techniques,” summarizes Junya Watanabe in his note of intent.

At Noir, Kei Ninomiya also focuses on spectacular three-dimensional outfits. As always, it starts from a predominantly black base, which it enhances through the use of vibrant shades of red. Sporty socks and sneakers embellished with pearls, the result of a collaboration with Reebok, the models all wear voluminous outfits. As hats, they wear strange pots and small copper watering cans upside down on their heads displaying cascades of curls.

The women imagined by the designer seem to come straight out of a fairy tale oscillating between princesses and witches. Thousands of fabric balls, each pulsing with a red glow, make up the first look, for example, while the wedding dress, which closes the show, literally glows in the dark, accumulating a myriad of luminous bulbs in the shape of flowers. Elsewhere, an enormous poisonous flower opens and closes its large mesh petals lined with leather on the torso and chest. Alongside the flowers, small or large mouths, red or black, also punctuate the collection.

Kei Ninomiya explores new shapes and all kinds of materials, like this lace made from a plastic net or this expanding foam, generally used for construction, which he uses to border pieces of tulle. This extravagant decorum as well as large tulle dusters are applied to harnesses to put on a daily wardrobe to embellish and subvert it. Along the same lines, the stylist makes trellises in fine metal chains or colored leather to layer over dresses. Belts and suspenders obsess him and are found multiplied endlessly in unusual jackets.

At the end of this stimulating day, Comme des Garcons once again marks a major blow with a collection of great impact, deeply resonating with current events and the troubled times we are living through. Like the three imposing final silhouettes dressed in immaculate white “cloud” dresses, which explode into large blisters. Ballooned with tulle, with thick layers, knots, ruffles, they are also constructed from a pile of plastic bags. At the end of the show and the music, the three models freeze for several seconds, staring at the audience as if they were making a heartbreaking appeal for peace.

The previous models used this same bubbling cocoon crinoline structure, but they were stained with red. Here again, the queen of Japanese fashion Rei Kawakubo plays with cottony or tulle excrescences, or stacks transparent cushion covers, but the latter are padded with a fabric splashed with red stains, like blood… A black dress with large swollen baskets on the hips hide at the back a tulle train full of posters and militant leaflets launching SOS messages against global warming.

Another series of creations makes the models completely disappear under large square or pointed covers, like tents, cut from fabulous brocade fabrics. The small slit at head height does not even allow the face to be distinguished. Large red ribbons sometimes entwine this single opening, which they tighten. How can we not think about the condition of women in several countries around the world and especially in Afghanistan?

Other ceremonial dresses are adorned with giant, misshapen sleeves, which hamper the arms, just like the first looks from the parade. Rigid, they hinder movement, forcing the models to move in small, slow steps; They are dressed in sort of large antique columns or bell dresses stuck in a strange coating which has solidified. Rei Kawakubo seems to tell us that there is little hope left.