Tomorrow, Kunihiko Morinaga will present his 25th Anrealage collection in Paris. From experiments with proportion and distortion to high-tech feats involving augmented reality, digital projections onto fabrics, and surfaces changing states, every season has brought new meaning to avant-garde—yet always within the realm of wearable.
To mark this milestone of seemingly limitless ingenuity, Morinaga has partnered with Sarah Andelman, who has dreamed up clever activations and playful pop-up projects via her Just An Idea consultancy for the likes of Lego, Starbucks, K-Way, Art Basel, and most recently, the Snoopy in Style NYC designer collaborations.
Their shared concept, Just An Realage—such a clever portmanteau—comprises a retrospective presentation within a transformed gallery setting, as well as a gift shop that riffs on the brand’s foundational interest in the Latin alphabet. Simply look at the logo and you’ll see how the composition of diagonal, intersecting lines reveals not only an A, but also a backward Z.
The 26 curated letter-to-object pairings span Japanese cultural items and collaborations. An apple for A might seem obvious, except that this one is sculpted in luscious red marble. F unfolds as a furoshiki, the traditional Japanese wrapping cloth, though these were printed with Kyocera’s FOREARTH sustainable inkjet printer (near-zero water waste). O, one of Andelman’s favorites, is a protective omamori charm with a twist; take it outside and the white surface turns multi-colored. There are staples—a notepad (N), a bag of rice (R), and a roll of Tape (T)—alongside a collectible Bearbrick (B) and charm jewelry (J) made with Eyefunny.
There were likely fewer possibilities for letters like X, Y and Z. Yet a soft travel case with an X-Ray print of toiletries; a yo-yo bordered with the alphabet from Japanese games company Freshthings; and a monogrammed metal zester add variety to the mix. And certain letters proved especially symbolic: Q is a patchwork quilt bedcover of fabrics from all 25 collections, pieced together by hand. H, a hanger with real flowers encased in its form, is both poetic and quotidian. “It’s a hanger that somehow encloses time,” Morinaga said of the recurring theme.
