Harunobu Murata’s spring collection unfolded on a warm Tuesday evening in the vast glass foyer of Tokyo’s National Art Center, serving as a continuation of the designer’s quest for elevated, effortlessly elegant womenswear. His goal is to get better every season.
Using the 20th-century sculptor Constantin Brancusi as a starting point, Murata tried to create clothing that would feel at home in an art gallery. For example, the white linen dress in the first look was printed in white, so that the folds almost resembled a plaster statue. That’s not to say it was stiff; these were fluid sculptures that moved with the body, starting with a wave of white – toga-like dresses, flowing gowns and bed linen skirts – before giving way to peach, butter yellow, scarlet and black. Pianist Kirill Richter kept the ivories tinkling in the middle of the catwalk all the while, providing a tasteful dramatic soundtrack that completed the atmosphere.
Later, a trifecta of looks with metallic fabric evoked the iridescent rainbows of spilled gasoline, achieved by covering the fabric with silver foil and combining it with a sulfur-containing agent in collaboration with Nishimura Shoten, a century-old workshop based in Kyoto. “It is like a sculpture that is exposed to rain and changes color, capturing the flow of time in one dress,” he said after the show. There was also impressive pattern work on display, with dresses pinned to the side so they fell in rich, asymmetrical folds, or delicate silk blouses with cutouts at the hip.
Murata largely operates in the field of occasion and evening wear, but down-to-earth accents in the form of oversized shirts and airy raincoats were also present in the mix. “I started with this very sculptural approach, but gradually changed the style to make it more wearable and realistic. I wanted it to have the essence of everyday life,” he said. As for how Murata’s wearable sculptures will translate into actual wardrobes, the impeccably groomed Tokyo women who always sit in the front row at his shows—their moisturized cheekbones and décolletés catching the light like polished linoleum—are as good an advertisement as any like any other.