Issey Miyake is one house with its finger firmly on the pulse of the weather forecast.
During last summer’s heatwave, the Franco-Japanese fashion house handed out designer ice packs to clammy menswear spectators.
For autumn-winter 2013, as temperatures in Paris plunged to sub-zero, they were at it again.
This time, revellers clutched invitations wrapped in the gold fabric used in thermal emergency blankets.
The insulating theme carried on in the clothes, with the design team’s exploration of a lightweight, heat-retaining wardrobe — so say the programme notes to enable “a freer lifestyle during the winter months.”
It was a neat idea.
Jackets and sporty overcoats with loose silhouettes used recycled polyester sandwiching thermal fleece fabric in russet and grey.
The box was also ticked for the house’s cutting-edge fabric technology: a translucent film was laminated onto jersey on ensembles, many of which sported signature utilitarian detailing like side pockets and zippers.
However, all of these were upstaged by the show’s defining look: the vibrant bold, silver and bronze emergency blanket fabric which appeared in more than a dozen of the looks that had revellers wide-eyed.
There were a few hits — like one great A-line, hooded black raincoat with space-age gold lining.
Sadly, with the all-over metallic hues, and pant line that distorted the leg shape — it often drowned out the human silhouette.
Some of the looks came across busy and a little garish — if, undeniably practical.
