Energy From the Underground: Read Our Interview of grounds Designer Mikio Sakabe Following His AW25 Presentation @ PFW →

Mikio Sakabe is a designer, a teacher, and an experimenter. He runs two labels, MIKIOSAKABE and the footwear brand grounds, creating style that comes to life from Tokyo to the world. He is also a mentor for young Japanese designers, founding MeSchool, a fashion school that provides the same education opportunities in Japan that have been historically limited to Europe.

In a cold, concrete garage, buried behind metal fences and dusty staircases dimly lit by glowing exit signs, a crowd gathered on thin benches. Gold and silver emergency blankets distributed upon entry caught and refracted the light from camera flashes and the fluorescent whites that beamed from above. With the shrieks of a piano and the hums of a deep bass, the grounds Fall/Winter 25-26 show began.

grounds is known for its avant-garde and vibrant designs. Shoe’s understated uppers burst into large, cloud-like soles — a rejection of expectations and mass-market footwear. Sakabe has said he wants to “defy gravity.” With grounds, this has two meanings: the inflated, bubbling soles let the wearer float above roads and floors, but in fashion, gravity is not only physical, gravity is the pull of trends, the temptation to do what’s expected. Sakabe resists this, breaking new ground.

Sakabe continues his experimentation with his latest collection by taking the brand in a new direction. Previously, grounds could be best described as playful, fantastical. But in that sub-level garage the collection was industrial, festering, wonderfully unconventional, and pushing the limits of footwear. Styled by Betsy Johnson, the models began to march down the runway. The shoes where violently oversized, rubber layered on rubber, shoe melting with shoe, the bulbous clouds signature to Ground’s designs erupted out from under thin socks. Cables hung off from shoes like bungie cords wrapped around luggage. Leg warmers scrunched onto sneakers, and padded high socks wrapped around legs like medieval armor. There where large rubber soles like the treads on a tank, and some toe boxes curled upwards like a jester's boots.

The clothes were just as unconventional. Flowing wide legs spilled onto shoes, shoulder pads jutted dramatically from coats. Leather gloves, stacked belts, and oversized sunglasses adorned models with matted hair. Everything was unusual, dark — a collision of industrial and organic — yet, true to Sakabe’s touch, remarkably fun.

I caught up with Sakabe after the show for an interview. Read more.

Miu Miu's Fall/Winter 2024 Collection Traces Life From Girlhood to Womanhood

The Miu Miu Fall/Winter 2024 collection by Miuccia Prada draws inspiration from the span and scope of people’s lives, its shifting clothing types reflective of the development of character, both personal and universal to form a vocabulary of clothing, from childhood to adulthood.

Concurrent gestures express different moments in life — they coexist within single outfits, just as we each hold simultaneous memories of our own experience. Evocations of childhood are expressed with deliberately shrunken proportions, cropped sleeves, and round-toed shoes; archetypical clothing types that directly recall those worn in youth. Childhood is a moment of impulsive, natural rebellion, here reflected in the liberation of a dichotomous mixing of different codifications of dress, pajamas with outerwear, proper with improper, right with wrong. By contrast, adulthood is expressed through recognized signifiers of propriety and chic — gloves and handbags, brooches, tailoring, the little black dress. Like mnemonic devices, clothes can make us both think back, and project forwards.

Those components of duality and recollection find counterparts in materials and construction. Bonding and fusing meld together different fabrics and combine disparate garments, sweaters and cardigans in silk and cashmere, poplin skirts with knit, while shearling is treated to mimic precious fur. Silk dresses are creased and molded to cotton jersey sheaths, volumes reduced with the impression of the original garment remaining, a trace of its antecedent.

As the collection reconsiders characteristic signifiers of life through the vocabulary of clothing, so our literal vocabulary can be readdressed. Girlishness is a word we can revalue, from a pejorative gendered noun, anchored to age, to a universal idiom expressive of the strength of rebellion, a spirit of freedom and individuality, one attribute of a richer whole. Perceived as an inherent component of Miu Miu, it should be examined not as a lone trait but as a fundamental aspect of a wider temperament — a notion expressed through a cast of personalities who each embody this ever-shifting Miu Miu persona. They include Dara Allen, Ethel Cain, Guillaume Diop, Luther Ford, Angel Hazody, Kristin Scott Thoe, Qin Huilan, Little Simz, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Ángela Molina, who also features in Miu Miu Women’s Tales.

Contemporaneity allows divergent creative processes to arrive at paradoxically correlated results. The Palais d’Iéna is punctuated by video installations created by the Belgian-American artist Cécile B. Evans, art considered as a tool to enrich and expand conversation around people. Conceived independently of the collection, by chance the notions of the survival of memory in their art finds echo within the clothes. This is a shared language, one informed by the moment we all live within, a universal message nevertheless resonant with our unique experience.

Highlights from Acne Studios' Winter 24 Presentation

Inspired by industrial materials and the human form, Acne’s winter 24 collection features a blend of toughness and craftsmanship in leather and denim garments. It is staged against the backdrop of two large-scale sculptures made from recycled tires by Estonian artist Villu Jaanisoo. These sculptures, titled Chairs in Rubber (2001), represent a fusion of craftiness and industrial aesthetics.

“I consider myself a sculptor in the most traditional sense. What interests me about working with tires is the certain ‘inner resistance’ of this material: it requires a lot of physical as well as mental force to shape them; the resistance that exists in each tire makes the surface of the sculpture alive, almost baroque.

”For my artworks, I have often used recycled materials, such as used car tires or utilized fluorescent tubes. Environmental issues have been important in terms of employing these, but to me, what’s even more interesting is the trace that the former lives have left to the recycled things I use for making something new, also the idea of putting something familiar into a new context,” says the artist Villu Jaanisoo.

The collection embodies a fast and futuristic woman, reshaping Acne Studios' signature codes of denim and leather with a raw, mechanical twist. It juxtaposes elevated femininity with a tough attitude, subverting traditional archetypes of womenswear. Classic elements like fur (both faux and shearling), ladylike handbags, a timeless black dress, and leather are reimagined with a contemporary edge.

“I’ve always been drawn to leather and denim. It’s the spirit of Acne Studios. One of our first collections in the late ’90s was called ‘leather and denim;’ two things that belong together. This season, we’ve created a powerful leather and denim woman. I’ve always related to clothing through subcultural movements. Denim and leather can transcend genre and subcultures — from punk to S&M. When you want to feel tough you gravitate towards leather and denim; it’s like armour. It always feels right. An empowering safety zone,” says Jonny Johansson, creative director of Acne Studios.

Highlights From Balenciaga's Winter 24 Collection during Paris Fashion Week

Taking place at les Invalides, under a set of screens tracking a narrative timeline from morning to night over natural and electronic landscapes, the projected images shift from actual to artificial—or somewhere in between the two states. Editing, splicing, content sharing, scrolling: each element and more plays across the monitors.

The soundtrack is composed by BFRND and features high energy rhythms, hypnotic melodies and voices turned into synths. 

The 24/7, a limited-edition wraparound mask, has an aerodynamic single-mold design that seamlessly obscures the wearer’s face around the eyes and along its sides by enveloping it from every angle. Ergonomic hollows hold each ear—looping under instead of simply sitting atop. Each end of the mask tapers toward the back of the head, leaving an opening so it can easily be donned or removed. A Balenciaga logo is lasered onto the left side.

Another standout was the limited-edition eBay t-shirt, with only 200 produced. The garment can be found in classic Balenciaga gray with a distressed treatment and eBay’s multi-colored logo.

A First Step in Paris Fashion Week for the Balinese Brand Isa Boulder

 
 

On October 3rd, ISA BOULDER showcased its debut runway collection, "Hardcore Handmade," at Paris Fashion Week in the Marais. This collection reflects the brand's deep commitment to craftsmanship and emphasizes the beauty of taking one's time to create unique pieces. Inspired by Bali, where the brand is located, it draws from the sounds of waves and the transition from beachside casual to evening sophistication. The collection features elegant eveningwear dresses, versatile layer-able pieces, and the brand's signature satiny swimwear.

The brand's signature argyle pattern is prominent in various garments, and each season, they focus on a new knitwear technique, with SS24 featuring macramé. The satiny fabric is cleverly woven to create an armor-like texture in dresses, skirts, bodysuits, gloves, and sandals, inspired by Balinese woven palm leaves. "Parachute" fabric in pale green, beige, and black adds a sense of lightness, contrasting with the handwoven materials. The earth-toned color palette includes browns, grays, ecru, and khaki, with hints of colors reminiscent of the brand's popular swimwear.

ISA BOULDER also introduced a range of accessories, such as shoes and bags, seamlessly integrated into the overall look rather than as external additions. The satiny fabrics shine in small shoulder bags and macramé low and tall sandals.

A Paris Fashion Week Diary From The Spring Summer 2019 Collections

photographs by Flo Kohl

Presentation of Yazbukey Fitness Club Spring Summer 2019 During Paris Fashion Week

A lithe group of dancers, acrobats and contortionists graced the stage for the high-voltage presentation of Yazbukey Fitness Club – surrealist designer, Yazbukey’s full-throttle spring/summer 2019 collection. Her latest works inspired by the current obsessions with fit culture, fitspo, and the like are a welcome alternative to the dominating athleisure forces as of late. photographs by Flo Kohl