Anrealage collaborates with Fendi after working with Tokyo Knit

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jan 13, 2020

Anrealage is busy with a plethora of collaborations. The Japanese label's founder, Kunihiko Morinaga, first travelled to Florence for Pitti Uomo, where he presented a capsule collection created with Tokyo Knit, an association of 180 Japanese knitwear specialists, including producers and dyers. He then journeyed on to Milan, to attend the Fendi show on Monday morning.

The Italian luxury label owned by the LVMH group has in fact joined forces with Morinaga, who regularly shows in Paris, for its new men’s Fall/Winter 2020-21 collection.

“I’ve worked on the technology side,” Morinaga told FashionNetwork.com, without adding any further detail. “To combine technology with fashion, you need the support of a major group. Collaborating with leading labels is extremely interesting."

After focusing for five years on light and shadow effects by means of high-tech wizardry, Morinaga, who founded his label in 2003, embarked on a new course last year, exploring the way in which we look at fashion through technology. He notably designed a collection in which the details of a series of wardrobe staples were hugely magnified, to explore areas which digital images never manage to convey in reality. For next season, he announced he will carry out “new experiments.”

At Pitti Uomo, Morinaga presented a series of essential menswear items, from overcoats to cardigans, pullovers and down jackets, putting centre stage a combination of time-honoured techniques and avant-garde technology, themed around the concept of the kaleidoscope. A khaki-coloured pullover blends different knitting techniques, like an abstract painting. A zipped jacket and a coat are made, jigsaw-puzzle fashion, with over 300 triangular and quadrilateral jersey fabric cuts. A cardigan combines a variety of jacquard patterns and textures.

Morinaga specifically worked with some of the 28 Tokyo Knit members that were awarded the association’s quality label for their focus on product excellence and on high-tech, sustainable technology. Japan is renowned for denim but also for knitwear, whose production was first developed during the Edo period, between 1603 and 1868, within a specialised district in Tokyo.