Post by Derrick Fun

#kolor Spring 2027. Perhaps we are all aliens to someone. And perhaps that is precisely what connects us.”Pertinent words in the press release for today’s Kolor show, which was about the terminal loneliness of the human condition and the tenderness of trying to understand another being. The core of the collection was more Men in Black than Mars Attacks, with business suits and pinstripe tailoring that was tweaked or warped, given extra buttons, colorful waistbands, and skew-whiff necklines to channel a sense of uncanniness. As the show went on, the colors became bolder, culminating in a group of sleek Martian green looks. Throughout, a handful of models sported black scleral lenses, and others wore not-quite trompe l’oeil coats that had been superimposed with images of fur. Others looked vaguely Western, with yoking on jackets and boots. Space cowboys? “It’s about imitating humans in daily life,” said designer Taro Horiuchi afterward. “Some aliens are not good at it, you know, so they start to show their alienness.” To make his point, the designer drew on a galaxy of references that included The X-Files and Animal Instincts as well as David Bowie and Andy Warhol (two men, Horiuchi said, “who were in many ways deeply extraterrestrial figures themselves”). He also brought in a Taiwanese psychedelic band called Mong Tong to help with the music; Greece-based artist Klaus Schmidt to do the textiles; and China-born, Japan-based painter Yang Bo to provide the graphics. A happily diverse mix, then, that was impossible to be pinned down to a single place or time. Horiuchi never veered into costume, keeping everything clean and restrained throughout. The Japanese designer knows well what it is to feel other; he has lived overseas in London and Antwerp, and after taking over from Kolor founder Junichi Abe last year, is still something of an alien himself in the studio. But he is clearly finding his footing there, and this amounted to a confident and intelligently executed collection. “His best yet,” said a fellow editor on the way out.