To man, appearances are dimly real, and little by little take place in our everyday lives. Altering form, finding the past and taking unexpected turns, perception is probably what we most rely on, and in this case, it may surprise us with the least imaginable solutions.
Strutting down the runway at Céline came not the usual austere strength we are used to, but the result of a stream of conscious freedom, open to no preconceived ideas. A highlight of how often “risk” and “creativity” are not so far from being synonyms. For Comme des Garçons, Kawakubo shocked tranquility through a parade of red bloody roses, a pensive uncertainty of connecting beauty with distress. Playing with the expectation of the same file rouge for her second line, Kawakubo bewildered an already prepared audience with the most delicate color-free remembrance of discretion. While Gareth Pugh created earthy creatures and not unworldly dreams, Iris van Herpen visualized the embodiment of an invisible fascination.
If perception is the key, then it is that same perception that makes us feel, and therefore conclude on our convictions. And so it happened for Yohji Yamamoto’s unforeseen turn to sexiness, yet not the sexiness man is used to perceive, but a subtle, fragile, gentle one. Fading into the past to contradictory find the future was not only done by Raf Simons at Dior, but creative minds like Junya Watanabe, Alexander Wang at Balenciaga and Rick Owens seemed to follow the trance. In the end, it appears to be that perception is what one chooses it to be, and that’s as real as it can get.
