It’s true that you learn something new every day: As it turns out, haystacks are far more comfortable to sit on than metal benches. After a plan-altering midweek thunderstorm and an unforgiving (but at times quite pleasant) heatwave, here’s the score card: Nature: 3, Fashion Week: 0.
Masayuki Ino hosted his spring show at Le Paysan Urbain in Paris, an urban farm and social responsibility project that promotes, among other wonderful things, local and responsible agriculture. A lovely day to kick off the last day of men’s shows in Paris, which also involves a Doublet-branded Japanese omelette and various ingenious examples of farm-to-runway fashion.
The original concept for this collection, Ino said through an interpreter, had been “itadakimasu,” a word Japanese people say before a meal. It signifies respect and gratitude for the lives and people involved in the cultivation of the food. Ino said the goal was to translate this sentiment into clothing.
It was getting acquainted with Sky High Farm, the agricultural concept located in upstate New York that donates 100% of its crops to those in need and fundraises through a fashion label of the same name, that inspired him to venture further into the idea of agriculture and clothing. The third component was the most formative for the collection itself: Ino encountered a factory that utilizes discarded fishing nets and turns them into yarn.
From there came a variety of expansions on this notion: A fabulously hilarious banana dress with “Chiquita”-like branding patches and a matching hoodie—this one a little grungier, as it had browned—were made with banana fiber. A cable knit sweater utilized the upcycled fishing gear in question, and a brown suit had been dyed with soil. A tee with an egg print was made partly with eggshell membrane. All delicious and nutritious, and altogether a net positive. A point for each of our players: Nature: 4, Fashion Week 1.