The idea of freedom was on Sayori Tanaka’s mind this season. “There are many people around the world whose freedom is restricted in different ways, and I feel outraged and angry about that, so the collection expressed this,” the designer explained after her fall show, which was held at the large hall of the National Yoyogi Gymnasium. A pianist gently jingled the keys before switching to an electric keyboard, accompanied by a drummer who kept the rhythm on a cajon as the models moved through the rows in the stadium.
Using feathers as a motif to represent that aforementioned sense of freedom, the collection was an exercise in Americana, with cowboy boots, paisley prints, western shirts with arrow pockets and tassel skirts telling the story. Denim is Tanaka’s forte, and it remained so tonight, with highlights including a Texan tuxedo adorned with jewelry, lots of nice jeans and a surprisingly wearable denim corset.
However, many of the other ideas were not executed with enough refinement and ended up looking messy. Tanaka is a former design director at Uniqlo with further experience at Yohji Yamamoto, but aside from the denim she clearly has a talent for, her own design language still feels unclear. “Introduce yourself! Introduce yourself again!” read the lights on the ceiling at the end of the show.
