If there has been any respite throughout the mind-liquefying delirium of this week, it’s been in the cool quiet of the early mornings, when the heat from the previous day has finally dissipated and the blast furnace of the next one hasn’t yet taken hold.
Ssstein’s second official outing on the Paris schedule fittingly took place in this golden moment on Sunday morning, and had Kiichiro Asakawa feeling “excited but very nervous” backstage before the show. The gentle designer was running on anxious energy, and spoke fast and animatedly about the mood he was trying to bottle.
“There’s a certain comfort in that clear, unburdened state of mind in the morning where you can truly appreciate things around you,” he said backstage beforehand. “You see people enjoying their hobbies, sipping coffee, going for a run, and starting their day on a positive note. I really love that atmosphere.”
He’d felt it walking around Tokyo and dropping off his young children at kindergarten, and particularly during a recent family camping trip to Lake Yamanaka. “It was scorching during the day, but the mornings were cool and crisp and so quiet. There was a desire to make the most of the day, and I wanted this collection to capture that feeling.”
It was a heavier summer proposition than much of what we’ve seen this season, with a lot of product layered onto each look. Suede and corduroy jackets were shrugged over shirts and ties, and office shirt collars half escaped from beneath bright knits that were themselves often layered under elegant blazers and farmer jackets. And if there’s something that absolutely none of us need this week, it’s a leather headscarf.
Still, these were very chic clothes, balancing the austere, expensive-looking elegance that Ssstein always does very well with some softness, helped along by a sensitive palette that included butter yellow sweatpants, a cyan V-neck, and some toffee and chocolate-colored corduroy that Asakawa had developed in Italy. Some good fashion to kick off this final day of shows, then, on a morning that, for the first time in weeks, felt cool enough to be tentatively optimistic.
