So maybe the biggest takeaway from both shows was that the world is probably quite fucked, but through that will hopefully come a new beginning. Takahashi was similarly Sphinx-like, noting how the way technology is controlling human life isn’t really a positive thing but that he’s not pessimistic about the future. It’s quite an optimistic message, trying again and again to survive.” In a new way, it seemed, where the world will look quite different. And the feeling is not to go back but to go ahead to the future. “Ask my brain please.” Pressed on whether it was a message of optimism or pessimism, he explained it was more about “trying to evaluate. “Just the title,” Miyashita said post-show of his interpretation of the theme. Was it doom and gloom or daring to fight on against whatever might be coming? That’s what everyone huddled around the designers after the show wanted to know. It was a like a struggle between the human and the not so human, emotion and coldness, freedom and oppression, safety and danger. (There was something resembling a bone as a cape closure.)īut through both collections were woven heritage fabrics, traces of punk rebellion and the warm reassurance of classic tailoring. Miyashita’s boys were perhaps on the run from AI dogs. Miyashita’s collection also felt like it could have been an extension of Black Mirror’s Metalhead episode, with its desolate black-and-white aesthetic. And when Nine Inch Nails’ “The Day the World Went Away” built up to its climax for the finale, it was pretty clear what this was about. Their baggy orange SOL print silhouettes (Survive Outdoors Longer) and sinister air vented masks only reinforced the disaster movie setting. Takahiro Miyashita’s The Soloist presented a similarly disturbing scenario, only his was inhabited by post-apocalyptic survivalists shrouded in fringed blanket capes and reassembled tailoring. Were they off exploring a new place to live? Or dead astronauts in space, perhaps, to semi-quote Marilyn Manson. But then we had the eerie mini finale of boys in puffer space suits with their masked faces lighting up the darkness surrounding them. The force of humanity was there throughout, though, in the sweeping, frayed silhouettes and punk-romantic pleated skirts, ending on a note of softness and the beauty of human fragility with lilac nightwear. The lab wellies and Dr Evil rubber gloves, the warning signs on the back of jackets – all that was lacking was a spaceship siren blinking and blaring. (And how Sophia the robot is perhaps plotting world domination while she’s watching Westworld and throwing shade on Twitter.) Despite the familiarity of Kubrick’s story, Takahashi managed to make it feel strange and alien, playing on the tinny disconnect that happens once technology is inserted into our lives. HAL’s all-seeing red LED eye popped up as rings on gloved hands and on bum bags, echoing the way our phones are probably eavesdropping on us right now. The film may be from 1968 but in a way feels more current than ever as we continue to put our (naïve?) trust in technology as a way to streamline our lives. Takahashi’s collection used the storyline of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as a parallel to the Order/Disorder theme and as a leitmotif in terms of prints and silhouettes. The shows – Undercover first, then The Soloist – began from opposite ends of a darkened Stazione Leopolda railway space. But other than that, they explained they’d worked completely separately and only seen each other’s collections when they arrived in Florence. As a testimony to their kindred spirits, they had only discussed the theme – Order/Disorder – and planned a joint finale at the very end. The designers have been friends since Takahashi got in touch with Miyashita in the late nineties to see his collection. Jun Takahashi of Undercover and Takahiro Miyashita of The Soloist flew in to Florence this week to present their back-to-back, double trouble show at Pitti, which took us down a path towards a troubling future. Are you worried about the end of the world? Do you know what to do if there’s a nuclear disaster? Does the thought of AI make you fearful? Then Pitti Uomo served up just the shows for you to watch.
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