October 2, 2022 |
Is it organic or unnatural? That’s always the question at Noir Kei Ninomiya, whose sculptural, fantastical pieces suggest a more complex human relationship with nature than a pastoral idyl.
For all their magic, there’s often a feeling that the human is being consumed or colonised by the alien clothes. Who has the upper hand in the Noir dynamic? It swings from piece to piece.
That tension could be seen in a series of pieces which melded neat check tailoring with coats and shrugs made from loops of plastic industrial tubing. Again the industrial merged with nature, when organza flowers danced around the body on articulated arms attached to a harness, which was worn over a tailored shorts suit.
Some things looked recognisably like clothes. There were tinsel lampshade skirts, white shirts, tailored Bermudas and tiered, crinolined maxi coats. A collaboration with Hunter wellies (every rain boot needs its own S&M style harness) should also go down a storm with Noir-heads.
Others pieces operated on the level of wearable, sculptural fantasies. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like to wear the storm clouds on a weather map as a shrug, Noir had the answer (and the clouds had a silver lining).
The most beautiful pieces came at the end, with the models, wearing looks that sprouted delicate white fronds or transparent tentacles. They seemed to merge with bioluminescent sea creatures found in the deep ocean and we’re so wonderous, they almost deserved a breathy David Attenborough voiceover. The effect was mesmerising. The level of fantasy is so exalted at Noir that it’s impossible not to be awed by it.
Photography courtesy of Noir Kei Ninomiya.
