PARIS, FEBRUARY 29, 2000
by LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON
Junya Watanabe’s Techno Couture collection followed on the heels of his acclaimed Function and Practicality show, which featured simulated rain that proved his transformable get-ups were, indeed waterproof. For Fall his focus shifted from water to air. Despite his play with volumes, Watanabe’s Fall collection is perhaps the most ethereal he has ever created.
“One didn’t have to be a professional seamstress to understand the hard work that had been put into creating those large forms yet keeping the texture so delicate,” says model Vicky Andrén, 16 years after wearing them on the runway. “The outfits were perhaps not what I would be wearing on a daily basis.” She remembers them “mainly because the collection quite literally ‘stood out’ in such an extraordinary way.”
At first glance, the honeycomb ruffs Junya Watanabe showed in his Fall 2000 Techno Couture collection called to mind those seen in Rembrandt portraits, but we’re guessing those starched confections couldn’t fold and be stored in an envelope, like Watanabe’s. They certainly weren’t made of a “techno” fabric like polyester chiffon, from which the designer created his up-to-date and exaggerated take on the ruff, transforming it from an accessory to a garment with an organic-meets-space-age aesthetic. The material might have been unknown in Rembrandt’s time, but its method of production—hand sewing—certainly was.
.. it was the first thing I saw from the collection at probably firstview.com and it haunted me for years.. one of those rare moments in life of 'what the hell is that and why is it so beautiful?' followed by staring at it for minutes every other day for a loooong time.. I was 13-14 and without guidance lol (meaning no one around me cared for fashion and there weren't fashion magazines at home or anything), but surely a TON of enthusiasm and curiosity for fashion. The whole collection was like waking up to another world of understanding creativity, aesthetic, sartorial expression, personal expression, you name it.. and it's never aged one bit for me, still my all-time favorite with all its purity. You see how easy on the eyes it is but it's still so challenging, multi-layered.. beautiful, sincere and far removed from all the attention-centered trickery and charlatanry that's taken over 95% of fashion in the past years. I actually feel quite lucky that this was my so-called start at an age where you become a bookworm whenever something interests you and inevitably set expectations based on that..
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