Hakushi Hasegawa and Tokutaro Hosoi soundtracked this Noir Kei Ninomiya show with the aural equivalent of a nervous breakdown. Their disturbed and discordant cacophony complemented an opening section of wearables that seemed to make gloom tangible. Trapped in their headspace by hair artist Shinji Konishi’s intrecciato hairpieces, the first brace of models wore spiky fronds of starlike metal thorns twisted around their bodies over bikers. These were garments there appeared no easy way to get out of.
A wrought-metal body piece with the silhouette of Instagram-centric angel wings street art was twisted into a whirling map of lines that coalesced in swirls shaped a little like flowers. Two models wore rib cage–like apparatus that was spiked and anxiety inducing. Shinji Konishi’s heads grew characters—a glum foal, two bickering squirrels—that seemed like spirit animals. Two great tufty, spongelike “dresses,” one red, one black, came with hollowed-out eye sockets and a haunted aura.
Some powerfully antisocial hooded coats in shiny material came dimpled with black flower embellishments and pinpoints of gleaming chrome. Tulle skirts were arranged with more florals and worn with deconstructed MA-1s and asymmetric introvert face masks. Red floral decorations climbed across leather harnesses, mesh skirts, and birdcage-shaped boned dress skeletons. Tangles of straight stemmed all-black roses and lilies were arranged like pickup sticks around their models. Layered arrangements of sculpturally gridded wire grew around the models before a closing look that resembled a tangled bunch of wiring from which more flowers bloomed.
Backstage, Ninomiya suggested the collectsion had been designed to touch upon the escape from depression through passion. His work today was an instant mood enhancer.
