SKIN
For “SKIN”̶a pivotal collection marking ANREALAGE’s 25th presentation in Paris̶. Kunihiko Morinaga explores an outer surface continually shed, renewed and rewritten, while the self remains.
From the shifting colors of the skins of living creatures to the interchangeable “skins” of video-game avatars, appearance becomes fluid across biological and digital worlds. Between them, clothing becomes a skin in flux, its design no longer fixed. At its heart is the firebird, inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, a symbol of perpetual renewal and rebirth that transcends time.
A live performance of the 1919 version of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird accompanies the show.
Anrealage
SCALES
Unveiled at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, the collection unfolds as a gradual mutation, from second-skin all-in-one silhouettes to increasingly engineered constructions.
Scale by scale, a new skin takes form through a patchwork of materials, patterns and effects: motifs printed with KYOCERA’s water-saving FOREARTH technology, traditional fabrics and Toray Ultrasuede scales forming trompe-l’œil video-game costumes and robot graphics. Japanese washi contrasts with translucent, light-reflective sequins with a peeling effect.
Bodysuits fuse the details and volumes of tailoring, outerwear and dresses in continuous constructions, forming a single layer. Organic and digital converge, as chromatophore-inspired surfaces meet a pixelated visual language.
With SEKISAI’s proprietary “Effective Skin” technology, 3D-printed scales shift color with each change of angle, like Op Art.
Transformation culminates in six armor-like cocktail and evening dresses. Each is animated with 1,000 to 2,000 individually controlled E Ink electronic-paper scales that change color in the blink of an eye. Unlike LEDs, the scales emit no light. The material itself changes color. Like cells suddenly flooding with pigment, vivid hues flicker then drain to ash gray before new patterns ripple across the garments in increasingly complex formations.
Beneath the surface, a dense network of wires connects the scales like hair or feathers growing from skin, with AI mapping the circuitry.
REBIRTH
The show closes on a futuristic parable. A lone model appears in an LED digital skin revived from last season. The body glows with light as a live performance of the 1919 version of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird brings the show to an operatic close.
Like the phoenix, a being that transcends time. A being that may exist far beyond the human lifespan.
In that future, clothing takes on a new dimension: a “third skin,” adaptive, enduring, continually reborn.
