Adeam (Q2510)
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Adeam is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Adeam |
Adeam is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
InThe Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly famously rolls her eyes at the constant presence of flowers in spring collections. “Florals, for spring? Groundbreaking,” she tells her editors. With all due respect to Mrs. Priestley, in the case of Adeam, it did feel like an exciting feat.This season, the New York and Tokyo-based designer Hanako Maeda set out to honorikebana, the Japanese art of floral arranging. (In Japan ikebana, is treated with the same seriousness as painting or sculpture, explained Maeda.) In her first look, a strapless minidress pinned with an abundant array of yellow and white silk flowers, she embraced the technique literally: “The process of making this dress was actually very similar to doing actualikebana,” she said. “When you make ikebana arrangements, you have a tray with needles— which is calledkenzanin Japanese. You put the stem of the flower onto the needle and put them in place. Then you keep on adding more flowers and branches to create this flower arrangement. So this dress was created in a similar way, where I was just organically placing flowers.” (Maeda said it took her over a day to place them and three more to sew them strategically into place.)She also explored a more conceptual interpretation. A minidress with a ball gown skirt featured an artful organza ruffle that mimicked “a cascading flower petal going down the vines,” she said. (Although the model who wore it, Maeda’s friend Yuka, offered her own interpretation: “This dress reminds me of a cappuccino foam,” she told the designer while trying it on.) A sheer button down shirt was adorned with delicate floral embroidery that appeared to bend with the body, as did a pair of flared pale blue pants. Meanwhile, Maeda made a number of looks with matelassé fabrics, stitched with an intricate sunflower pattern. Speaking of specific blooms—the designer used flowers native to Japan. A bra top featured white hydrangeas, which spring up across the country during the rainy season in June. Mimosas were accents on shoes, and blue camellias lined a skirt.Not wanting to seem too overly sweet, Maeda smartly stuck with a muted palette: blacks, creams, whites, and navy were her go-tos, along with dusty pinks and blues. “I really like the balance between something that feels a little bit more effortless and sporty with something that feels romantic and delicate,” she said.
Examine her lookbook closely, and you’ll see that aforementioned bra top pop up in several of her looks. This was Maeda’s attempt at both practicality—see, it’s a style that can be worn in more than way!—yet also ephemerality: “Ikebana is so beautiful because it doesn't last forever,” she said. “I wanted to reflect this philosophy in the styling of the collection. The pieces really morph with how the wearer wants to style the piece.”
9 September 2024
Hanako Maeda’s Adeam is inspired by her own upbringing; she was born in Tokyo but grew up in New York City, and her label fuses the fashion she wears in both cities. “My own life experience does have this kind of duality between the Eastern world and the Western world,” she said.For her resort 2025 collection, she decided to take a macro view of her own micro experience. Japan and the West have a long, rich history of influencing each other’s art: Commodore Matthew Perry’s opening of trade routes between Japan and Europe in the mid-19th century led to the Japonisme movement after creatives like Edgar Degas and Éduoard Manet were exposed to their restrained, uncluttered aesthetic. Fast-forward to the modern day, where Japanese bakeries often blend flavors like yuzu matcha into traditional French desserts. “This exchange of cultural ideas between the East and the West isn’t a one-way street,” Maeda says. “You see French and European influences in Japanese culture, and vice versa.”So, Maeda decided to pay homage to this historical relationship through her clothes. She embraced dusty Impressionist-like hues for many of her Japanese tailored jackets and pants. Tulle skirts with frills—reminiscent of a Degas ballerina—are made in muted shades associated with the legendary Kano school in Kyoto. “I wanted to combine something romantic and soft with something that feels more structured,” she said. Meanwhile, a green minidress feels like the sartorial equivalent of a famous Lady M matcha crepe cake, without being overly sweet. “I feel like it is a little bit more relaxed, rather than prim and proper,” Maeda added.The designer also continues to play with texture, rather than color, making a look stand out: knits are mixed with jersey, whereas a sweatshirt top has a tulle skirt underneath. “I played with a lot of different elements,” she said. It seems Maeda was all about mixing and matching—on literal and metaphorical levels.
12 June 2024
For Hanako Maeda, opposites attract. “I feel like throughout this collection you see this dichotomy between something that feels more romantic versus something that feels more minimal, between fabrics that are constructed and fabrics that are soft,” the creative director of New York and Tokyo based Adeam said from her studio in Ginza. A knit top was layered underneath a leather bustier, a denim skirt came with asymmetrical pleated chiffon paneling, and a peekaboo black lace turtleneck peeked out from a gap in a crisp white oxford. Meanwhile, the traditionally masculine suit was given a feminine, flirty edge via an off the shoulder jacket with dangling belted straps.Whereas for pre-fall Maeda embraced a cheery color palette of yellow, greens, and blues inspired by the Amalfi Coast, this collection returned to her signature muted hues. Part of this was, sure, the season—these clothes are meant to be worn in the fall and winter by her dedicated urban customers. (New Yorkers, they love their blacks and grays.) Yet it goes beyond utilitarian practicality: Maeda believes that the detailed craftsmanship of the clothes shows better when the silhouettes are the eye’s main focus. “I feel like when you have a lot of loud prints or loud colors, sometimes it's difficult to see the details of the garment,” she said. “I really wanted the color palette to be subdued but play more with textures.” One all-black look, for example, had vegan leather as well as matted fabric. Those subtle, tactical details are much more apparent to the wearer when in monochrome. “You really see the handwork of the people that are creating and sewing the pieces,” Maeda said.That was another goal of Maeda’s: to show off the meticulous work of Japanese artisans. Adeam makes everything in Japan. They have an in-house workroom filled with pattern-makers and sewers, and their factories are in the Kanto region just outside Tokyo. “I really wanted to focus on this idea of Japanese craftsmanship and highlighting it,” she said. A number of suits showed off the sharp preciseness of their tailoring.For the select eveningwear pieces, Maeda played with color more. A chiffon suit came in a cherry red; dresses were in maroon and a shimmery powder blue. It could be hard to connect the more streamlined, sharp looks to these flashy, feminine pieces, as beautiful as they were. But even the most dedicated of minimalists sometimes like to switch up their shades.
Along with her womenswear collection, Maeda also released the newest pieces for Ichi, her gender-neutral line. They’re meant to be wardrobe workhorses that become the backbones of one’s everyday dressing: think classic zip jackets in tans and blacks, oversize sweater vests, and wrap-around scarves. Whether you want to embrace a style statement or just a style staple, Maeda has something for you.
12 February 2024
Hanako Maeda is perennially inspired by Tokyo and New York, but this season she brought a little dolce vita into her sensible modern wardrobe. If her spring collection was a serious alternative to balletcore, pre-fall takes tomato girl summer to task. “I was really inspired by my trip visiting the south of Italy,” Maeda said. “The scenery, all the vegetation, like the trees, and the olives, and blood orange, and the citrus-y lemon color.” The color palette is certainly villa-ready, but the fabrications are equally summer-y and practical: lots of linen and cotton twill, mixed with organza and some easy knit cardigans. Maeda was also influenced by Italians’ penchant for striped shirting. Her version mixes sizes of stripes for a more dimensional look.A classic Adeam dress in the collection is the pale blue striped Amalfi dress, with a shirt collar, wrap waist, full sleeves, and a pleated mini skirt. It’s a style that could work in many of Maeda’s collections as it’s easy and feminine. Same goes for the blood orange Bella dress, which is a modern, more sophisticated update to a classic fit-and-flare. It’s a holiday-inspired collection, but there’s plenty that could work for more corporate settings, too. Consider the dark linen vest and trouser set, or the sensible beige twin-set. It doesn’t look out of place. Quite the contrary, since you get the sense that the Adeam woman is always perfectly put together, whether she’s in New York, Tokyo, or Capri.
4 December 2023
In case you missed it, balletcore took over the micro-trend TikTok multiverse last year. Such was the virality of the trend that it bled onto the runways and many a magazine’s website, including this one.But Adeam’s Hanako Maeda did not have TikTok—and its ballet flats and pale tights and frilly tutus and cutesy bows—in mind when she started working on her spring 2024 collection. She was thinking of the real thing. “When people think about ballet, they think of something that’s romantic and delicate and pretty,” said the designer backstage at her runway show this afternoon, “but I wanted to focus on ballet as a sport.”The athleticism Maeda had in mind took shape most prominently in the collection’s tights, which she crisscrossed the way dancers do their pointe shoes. “I know a lot of people are into the pantless look right now, so I wanted to do it in a more elegant way,” she explained. The impetus of the collection may not directly be the TikTok craze, but don’t discount Maeda’s curiosity and appetite for reinterpreting what folks are currently fascinated with, even if her take on the trend played closer to athleisure. Once again, the athleisure-fication of fashion has proven impossible to run from this spring season—meet your customer where they are, it’s been said.More compelling were Maeda’s less literal interpretations of ballet. She used small pleats and shirred tulle to evoke the dynamic but graceful movement of a dancer, which was captured best by a skirt with two pleated panels layered on top of each other at the sides and a striking fully sheer hoodie with shirred tulle accents. There was also a run of sheer corseted jackets and dresses built to resemble crinolines. These veered closer to costume territory but added a layer of allure to Maeda’s otherwise sweet collection, ditto the sheer knits she layered under dresses.In case you needed confirmation that Maeda sees ballet as more than a fleeting internet-diluted trend, the designer partnered with New York City Ballet once again—the first time was in 2015 when she designed costumes for its fall gala—to have one of its principal dancers, Tiler Peck, perform at the closing of the show. That’s as real as it gets.
10 September 2023
Adeam’s Hanako Maeda has been designing for more than 10 years. Now that she’s reached her mid-thirties, as she shared over Zoom, her point of view has evolved. Both Adeam and Maeda have grown up, as has her customer, she said. It’s through this introspection that she arrived at her resort 2024 collection.“I feel like my last collection was very focused on a theme,” Maeda said of her punk-inspired fall 2023 lineup. “I love what I did, but when I design for a runway show I’m always focused on a specific concept.” For resort, rather than hone in on a mood, she decided to focus on “the building blocks of what the Adeam wardrobe is.” While it’s true that every designer aims to deliver “a wardrobe”—a less crass way of referring to a commercial assortment—for resort and pre-fall, Maeda seems earnest in her attempt at paring things down.The most important part of the Adeam design philosophy, the designer explained, is the idea of convertibility. Opening the look book is a belted cropped jacket, which reappears later as a trench coat—the piece is modular and can be either a short jacket, a long trench, or a long vest. Modular and convertible fashion can oftentimes feel over-designed, but Maeda has the right approach in designing with her customer’s lifestyle in mind: “This is great for traveling, because it’s three looks in one, also, when you invest in a designer-price-point piece, you want it to feel timeless and like something you can wear in more than one occasion and past a single season.” Another example is a knit dress that breaks down into a skirt and either a long-sleeve sweater or a sleeveless top.Elsewhere, Maeda played off this utilitarian design sensibility by adding workwear details onto denim and tailoring. A run of three dresses taps into the whimsy of Adeam while adhering to the brief of this collection; they look both interesting and easy to wear.Spread throughout the otherwise streamlined silhouettes in this lineup you’ll spot a peplum or two. Peplums were big in the first half of the 2010s, their popularity often attributed to the explosion of business casual in the mainstream. They’ve had a slow but steady return over the last couple of seasons, and Maeda here makes a solid statement for their comeback. “I like this idea of returning to something that feels classic or a bit retro,” she said, “but it’s also a flattering proportion, and it can be feminine and romantic while being modern.” That’s something else maturity will give you: hindsight.
Why not revisit the things that have made us feel our best?
5 June 2023
The angel from my nightmareThe shadow in the background of the morgueThe unsuspecting victimOf darkness in the valleyWe can live like Jack and Sally if we want.You read that right: Blink 182’s “Miss You” is being quoted in an Adeam review. The teenage angst anthem of the 2000s was on the soundtrack of Hanako Maeda’s fall 2023 collection. While the last few seasons saw Maeda steer Adeam down a whimsical, almost saccharine path—her cutesy lineup for spring being the climax of this idea—for fall she entered darker territory.“This season my inspiration was music,” Maeda said backstage right before the show, “most specifically the music I was listening to in my childhood,” she added, explaining that as we’ve seen Y2K exhaustingly bleed into the runways and people’s closets, she was curious about what culture she was consuming during that time. “My childhood was a lot more punk or emo, I listened to pop-punk like Blink 182 or Green Day, so a lot of the textiles and silhouettes come from that subculture of fashion.” Other inspirations include Harajuku and the gothic face of Lolita style.This melting pot of influences resulted in a surprisingly focused lineup. Colorful tartans were cut into tailored skirts and dresses and styled under silk blouses and sleeve sets. Lace opera gloves and pleated tulle accents captured the sweet end of Harajuku, while black leather harnessing, pleated tulle accents, and leather skirts imbued the darkness of gothic Lolita in the collection. Maeda loves modularity, and so has embedded this idea deep into Adeam’s DNA. This season she made the best use of this language in her evening offering: Many of the puff sleeves on the runway were removable, and look five, for instance, consisted of a skirt and a top. “Options are important,” she said.For day, Maeda cut tailored coat dresses and jackets in double-faced wool and silk in what was some of her sharpest tailoring, and introduced leather separates in addition to a beautiful knit dress draped in a soft pink ribbed knit. This was the “Sally” in the collection, if you will.The “Jack” showed up after an interlude guided by a Japanese musician known as “Samurai Guitarist.” Maeda presented her latest collection for her ICHI line, the more affordable gender-neutral collection under Adeam. This was the runway debut of the collection, and this section of the show leaned into grunge as its main reference.
The decision to show both collections together allowed Maeda to push her main line to the evening space she’s been toying with of late; the presence of ICHI eased the load of having to dress down her woman to find versatility in her wardrobe proposals.The fifteen looks added a necessary edge to the collection, and the oversized silhouettes shared across male, female, and non-binary models offered a compelling point of view on layering. It was definitely grunge with all the plaids, Doc Martens, pocket chains, and painted nails, though one almost wishes it was dirtier, messier, and slightly, well,grungier. The ripped sweater in look 39 was a great start. After all, what made grunge cool was not just the clothes, but the ease and preternatural angst of its subjects. Where Maeda did less with more and leaned into this vibe, her ICHI collection was at its strongest.
12 February 2023
Adeam’s Hanako Maeda grew up in between New York City and Japan. She spent many of her childhood summers in the resorts of Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes located at the base of Mount Fuji, where her preferred activity was tennis. For pre-fall, she. ruminated on her memories of the preppy tennis outfits that were a sartorial common denominator between New York and her summers in Japan.Rather than rehash country club outfits, Maeda stayed true to her label’s hybrid sensibility and merged this stylistic archetype with the fashion of contemporary Japan. “Something that is very interesting now in Japan is that the younger generation is really into American vintage, but in a very Japanese way,” she said. “It’s very oversized, deconstructed, and with a lot of layering.”Maeda’s reimaginings of oxford stripe shirtings took the form of white cotton layered with sheer striped fabric and cut into loose and pleated summer dresses. She could’ve expanded on this idea. Cut & sew knitwear looked particularly sharp. An elongated cardigan/pleated dress combo was her most successful hybrid, but closely following it were a blush double-collar oxford stripe off-the-shoulder blouse, and a poplin button-down/knit polo mashup. To add visual interest, Maeda included a vibrant jacquarded windowpane plaid, though this would have sat better with the rest of the lineup had the green base been closer to the grass green hue used elsewhere.Adeam returned to New York Fashion Week for spring, and celebrated 10 years in business with a collaboration with model Carolyn Murphy. Maeda’s next step, she says, is to expand her retail presence stateside, in Japan, and the rest of Asia. “It would be fun to expand our reach, going global is my next goal,” she shared.
8 December 2022
Hanako Maeda was in a celebratory mood for spring: it’s her label’s 10th anniversary. Today’s Adeam show, held at the penthouse of One Hudson Square, marked the brand’s return to the runway after almost three years. “I still cherish the excitement of my first time presenting at Fashion Week,” wrote Maeda in her show notes, “and it feels like a homecoming to return for our anniversary show.” The show was intimate, lighthearted. Supermodels Karen Elson and Carolyn Murphy sat front row, the latter of whom recently partnered with the brand on a capsule to celebrate this same anniversary.Matsuri, the Japanese summer festival, served as the starting point for Maeda’s spring collection. Its festive fireworks, contagious uplifting mood, and colorful paper lanterns (which were spread throughout the show both on the floor and off the ceiling) provided visual references for Maeda’s lineup. The season's print came inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock prints. It only came in two of 30 looks, but, together with textural plaids and stripes in separates, it was enough to provide a novelty space for Maeda’s mostly solid color assortment.The collection was sweet and sentimental, its pastels and ruffles teetering on the edge between saccharine and earnest. It was most persuasive when Maeda leaned fully into the jolliness of her source of inspiration and took it to a more contemporary space. Crystal tights, gloves, and transparency in other places added the right amount of whimsy to the collection, while Croc inspired platform clogs in patent finishes lent a slightly quirky edge.Per usual, Maeda worked in cutouts and versatile styling. This was strongest in a series of floor-length silky dresses with a cutout in the abdomen that could be dressed up to feel like eveningwear or down as casual daywear. Maeda’s shirting was strong, especially a tiered puff sleeve button down with a shirred yoke. This designer also loves separates and modularity; she often layers pieces together to create less conventional silhouettes out of them. This worked best this season with a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese obi belt worn as a corset or harness skirt.Maeda has found her way around building a signature look out of the separates and versatility her customer seeks. If she continues to be true to her customer’s needs while honing into her own signatures and idiosyncratic aesthetic, she might have another ten years or more on her horizon.
15 September 2022
This is a big year for Adeam and its founder Hanako Maeda. The label is celebrating its 10th-year anniversary, planning a return to New York Fashion Week this September, and launching a collaboration with Carolyn Murphy later this month at a pop-up store on Madison Avenue.While Maeda’s fall 2022 collection focused on nostalgia, looking back at the preppy academic style of her childhood in New York City and herInto the Woodsinspired first collection, she is looking decisively into the future for resort. “There was a lot of looking back the past few seasons,” she said during a preview, “but this season I wanted to look ahead and focus on the technical aspects of creating shape.” To do so, she looked closely at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, which she used to visit often–there is definitely some nostalgia left in her, but her outlook for resort felt fresher and lighter.Maeda’s main inspiration was Isamu Noguchi’s “Water Stone,” a stone-sculpted fountain set in an abstract garden that explores the relationship between exterior and interior space. This translated into deftly cut and draped pieces, most asymmetrical and made in monochrome colors.A short trench jacket captured her East-meets-West aesthetic by merging the outerwear with a kimono, it was the most successful out of three trench experiments. The Noguchi inspiration translated the best into a navy sweater patchworked with five types of ribbed knit in different widths, mimicking the artist’s focus on texture and shadow over color.This practice of patchwork and bricolage featured prominently in Maeda’s mind this season; constructing versatile pieces became a priority. “After the pandemic, the customer wants to find something they can dress up or down,” she said. While some looks came off slightly over-complicated, she had luck layering knitwear over woven items. The two-in-one nature of these pieces appears to be resonating with her customers. She says they’re doing well in both her Japanese and American markets, as they reflect the ease of pandemic dressing while feeling “a little bit more designed, more put together.”“I feel like this season is almost a palette cleanser,” she said. That’s an apt description of not just the collection, but also Maeda’s frame of mind as she looks forward to 10 more years of Adeam.
6 June 2022
Hanako Maeda is celebrating 10 years of her label Adeam this season. As such, she’s indulging in some well-deserved nostalgia. First, she remembered her earliest memories of living in New York, when she would walk in Central Park after school in the fall. The other core memory informing the season is her New York Fashion Week debut in fall 2013, when she presented anInto the Woodsinspired collection.Both are equally important in understanding the fall 2022 collection, though the academic influence is often more apparent than the fairy tale. In 2013, the collection was dressier and darker. Maeda’s feminine aesthetic was apparent, but it wasn’t as refined or individualized as it is now. What a difference a decade makes.For womenswear this season, Maeda honed in on wearable everyday pieces with a scholastic edge, many of which can be converted or styled differently. The look book opens with a puffer jacket deliberately deconstructed to show the detachable sleeves and skirt. This versatility, which is repeated in shirts and even knits, can be really effective especially when the mechanics of how you’d take something apart or put it back together are hidden.This season is two collections in one: the main womenswear collection and Ichi, a unisex, less expensive line. Again, the uniform influences are apparent, though via asymmetric polo shirts and khaki pants rather than pleated skirts and sweaters. Someone, go flag theGossip Girlwardrobe team.
14 February 2022
Hanako Maeda was reminiscing on past summers while dreaming up her pre-fall collection, specifically a semester when she studied abroad at Parsons in Paris, traveling within France and to Lake Como on the weekends. The memory of those idyllic European landscapes provided ample inspiration, both for the floral print seen throughout and the sailor motifs.The collection opened with a beautiful encyclopedic print of flowers she would have seen in France, labeled with biological descriptions. “A lot of the time floral prints can feel a little too girly,” said Maeda. “I wanted to create something that felt a bit more mature.” The Boardwalk top featured convertible ties that are styled as a halter-neck in the look book, but can also be worn as a bow tie or scarf. Paired with a matching skirt, it looked like something a duchess might wear to a charity luncheon.Oversized collars have featured in Adeam collections for a few seasons now; this time Maeda expanded on the nautical theme. Her modern version of the sailor top was a slouchy white tee with a scarf in the aforementioned botanical print pre-tied. Paired with butter yellow wide-leg trousers with a rope tie on the front, it created a whisper of a sailor’s uniform. A boatneck Breton-stripe top with the same pants in navy and white was far more literal and, as a result, less interesting.Maeda is focused on versatility and wearability. Many of the designs in the collection featured details that can be altered or styled differently depending on the wearer and their mood. “When I create a piece, it’s not fully complete until it’s in the hands of the person who is wearing it,” she said. The finale outfit embraced this philosophy while also offering a sleeker outlook for a brand known for its feminine designs.A poppy red halter top with buttons down the side paired with roomy matching trousers almost looked like a jumpsuit. Maeda said the fabric is wrinkle-resistant, making it an easy set to throw in a suitcase for special occasions. It would be just the thing for a night of pasta and red wine overlooking the Mediterranean, without having to worry about spills. Here’s hoping by the time the collection arrives that will be a possibility for now-dormant travelers.
6 December 2021
When presented with the challenge of creating a digital fashion show during a global pandemic, there are two main schools of thought: Either you use limitations to your advantage and make a collection that highlights the beauty of making do, or you turn to the unlimited resources of the internet and technology and make a virtual fantasy to showcase real clothes. For spring, Hanako Maeda, the designer of Adeam, chose the latter (though she went with the former for the resort 2021 season).The resulting digital show’s CGI landscape, Adeam Island, is rosy with crystal blue waters punctuated improbably by palm trees. The models walk along a narrow strip that calls to mind the highway around Australia’s famous pink lake. The cast is visibly pasted in, and the effect is more like a collage than a standard video. The clothes evoke a true lady on vacation: someone who will relax at the beach and sip a mojito but still makes sure to pack gray, windowpane-printed, chambray suit separates in case they’re needed.That is true to the longstanding vision of the Adeam woman. Maeda is known for creating ever-appropriate feminine clothes that make just enough of a statement. This season, the most casual pieces are a souvenir-like graphic T-shirt and an anklet made from shells and baroque pearls. The label’s take on a Hawaiian print (you know, the kind that tourist dads wear?) appears on satin twill in blouses and dresses. A standout look is a baby blue basketweave tank top with fringe paired with coordinating wide-leg trousers. A little edge would have been nice, but our stay at Adeam Island was certainly easy breezy.
8 September 2021
Though many who grew up in the early aughts protest, Y2K fashion has officially been revived. Just a quick scroll through TikTok will show you that Gen Z has embraced the high-gloss look resplendent with rhinestones, low-rises, and lots and lots of skin. For resort 2022, Adeam designer Hanako Maeda joined the pack of designers looking to put their own spin on the trend but in a way that felt true to her tasteful emerging label. “When you look at TikTok or the next generation, it’s too literal an interpretation for me,” she said. “So I wanted to do it in a way that feels more acceptable to people who were teenagers or adults at the time.”She was inspired by her own wardrobe as a teenager growing up in Azabu, Tokyo, when she listened to grunge and punk music and wore a uniform to school. As a result of this personal backstory, you’d have to really squint to find recognizable Y2K hallmarks, though that’s likely to appeal to a wider range of customers than a literal interpretation. In the first look, she reimagined a uniform cardigan and flannel pants as a convertible knit top featuring a removable wide collar and cuffs, with pants made of plissé gingham chiffon. Maeda also says that she used to wear oversized shirts as dresses in the era; that look is shown here as shirtdresses and T-shirt dresses with tie details along the waist. Among the most obvious nods to the early aughts are the trompe l’oeil double waistbands, placed on flowing midiskirts and denim minis, that mimic a teenage boy’s sagging jeans in a way that will appeal to the refined Adeam customer.Some references are more ’90s, like the dress with a plissé gingham skirt and a white tie on the waist, and a top that resembles a T-shirt over a flannel shirt. The latter is distinctly feminine and is paired with sensible white pants and slip-on loafers, suggesting, as the rest of the collection does, that the punk grew up and got a penthouse on the Upper East Side.
11 June 2021
Hanako Maeda looked to six contemporary Japanese artists featured in the “STARS” exhibition at the Mori Art Museum to guide her fall 2021 collection. Silhouettes inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s sculptures and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s architecture photographs met modern details like exaggerated sleeves and two-piece sets.After spending more time than usual in Japan throughout the pandemic, Maeda found herself exploring the local factories and focusing more on craftsmanship. The standout look this season was a crinkled pleated poplin trouser paired with a matching blouse: “One of the great things about pleating is that it gives the fabric a natural stretch without it being a jersey fabric or a knit,” Maeda explained. The pleating details, which are specifically engineered for each A-line silhouette, draped the body while also lending a playful element of texture. Also new: a soft new micro-ribbed knit, work-from-home-friendly fabric that feels like sleepwear without looking slept-in.Versatility was stitched into this collection with a few convertible pieces, like a cutout silk dress, poplin-buttoned blouse, and double-faced jersey sweatshirt; each had detachable sleeves to create multiple looks. Other highlights include elevated outerwear options, like a belted wool poncho, and a new monogram logo, which Maeda splashed over headscarves. She also found inspiration in the JapaneseWashokucolor palette, mixing deep tones like violet and scarlet with lighter shades of blue and rosy pinks.Alongside her fall 2021 collection, Maeda introduced another labor of love: a genderless, size-inclusive line of streetwear. Styled to reflect how we’ve dressed based on our mood this year, Maeda worked closely with her male and nonbinary team members to make sure the collection was truly fluid. “I think it’s impossible to make something that fits every single person,” she said. “But I wanted to make sure the collection feels inclusive and feels comfortable for a lot of different people.”
16 February 2021
For pre-fall 2021, Adeam’s Hanako Maeda drew inspiration from her childhood memories spent at her family’s summer home in Kawaguchiko, a countryside escape near Japan’s Mount Fuji. “I wanted to focus on the more calm and serene aspect of summertime,” she explained of the easy, comforting vibe. Using shades of pastels that mimicked cherry blossoms, Maeda leaned into a “loose fullness,” with empire-waist dresses and flowing wrap skirts.The main print was an interpretation of Japan’s other native flower: hydrangeas, which bloomed over a trio of dresses. Maedam used a linen-like fabric that is both wrinkle-resistant and machine washable, making the Adeam woman’s day-to-day just a little easier come 2021.In this moment of waist-up dressing, elevated shoulders were a relevant highlight. The square-neck babydoll dresses felt put together for a Zoom call with colleagues, but could also be thrown over a swimsuit by the pool. Versatility was another focus this season, partly because the collection will ship in late spring, when the days are warm and the evenings are cool. The cotton cardigan sets and ruffled boleros came with a touch of nostalgia: “I wanted to do a youthful, modern take on a twin set,” Maeda said. “My mother used to wear a lot of knit twin sets, and it was kind of my quintessential idea of a polished woman.”Another standout this season was a convertible side-tie blouse. The superfine plissé top with cutout sleeves elevated both the pleated gingham chiffon shorts and palazzo pants it was paired with. Also new: the final three looks, which were part of Maeda’s first “room wear” collection. Made from the brand’s leftover deadstock fabrics, they’re a feminine take on loungewear, and will be available exclusively onadeam.com.
7 December 2020
A few days ago, Hanako Maeda presented her spring 2021 collection from her parent’s home in Tokyo. She was dressed casually and wearing glasses as she spoke about working remotely and sleeping in her childhood bedroom. The COVID-19 lockdowns have drastically changed the ways in which we live, and for Maeda, who runs a global business between New York and Japan, hitting pause was a shock to her system.But despite the pandemic, the ADEAM designer has been working hard on her spring 2021 collection. If these were normal times, Maeda would be prepping for a runway show at New York Fashion Week, one with an imaginative set design, inspiring music, and a front row filled with celebrities and influencers. Instead, Maeda drew inspiration from her surroundings in Tokyo and from the summer season, which, without the thousands of annual tourists the city usually welcomes, looked and felt completely different. Maeda actually had time to wander through the lush central gardens and listen to the sounds of cicadas. She thought often about these images as they were once conjured by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō.Her spring collection speaks to this feeling of summertime serenity, via breezy cotton and linen fabrics and loose, airy silhouettes. Knits were oversized and cozy, while Maeda used soft Japanese crepe for a hoodie dress with a flounced hem and striped indigo and camel linen for wide-leg trousers and tiered shirt dresses. Convertibility was key, as it often is with Maeda’s designs, whether that means trompe l’oeil detailing or a two-in-one garment that can be tied or twisted or tucked to the wearer’s liking. One of the most thoughtful pieces was a riff on a traditional Yukata, which is a more casual, comfortable version of a traditional kimono that can be worn both at home and outdoors.Speaking of the outdoors, the designer filmed her collection in the grounds of the Meiji Kinenkan, a reception hall that was built in 1881 near the Akasaka Temporary Palace. It was a smart location for Maeda, since her aesthetic blends organic ease and practicality with something bold and regal, even. Her clothes are luxurious but not over-the-top. It’s what makes ADEAM’s brand resonate with a broad customer base.
14 September 2020
Adeam isn’t a brand that comes to mind when you think about something cozy to wear while lounging around at home. Hanako Maeda’s designs are typically statement-making, the kind of well-tailored dresses, skirts, tops, and outerwear that are meant to be seen. Even her more fluid pieces, as well as those made specifically for travel and wearability from machine-washable fabric, are too stylish to live in quarantine.This season, as is the case with many designers, Maeda decided to shift her focus a bit. Her resort lineup is themed around the idea of staying home. Instead of a traditional look book shoot, the designer enlisted her local friends in Tokyo, all of whom are professional models. They styled themselves in the new clothes and had their family members or partners snap iPhone photos of them, some getting ready in their bathrooms, others sitting in chairs in their living rooms. But even though the pandemic forced Maeda to change direction, her creations remained distinct and delightful. Soft shirting and comfy hoodies came with her signature “kawaii” ruffles and balloon sleeves, and trousers were cut in a surprising shade of blush pink.The tightly edited collection was entirely made with Maeda’s machine-washable Japanese crepe, all upcycled from her previous collections. On top of adopting a more sustainable model, Maeda is also giving back financially: She has pledged to donate a portion of her sale proceeds to UNICEF in an effort to raise funds for children affected by COVID-19 around the world. All in all, this was a thoughtful, smart, and concise new alternative to Maeda’s typical wares. It will be exciting to see if she continues to evolve it as social distancing rules are eased.
24 June 2020
Sportyis not a word you’d typically associate with Adeam. Hanako Maeda’s designs are dreamy and sometimes fanciful, with sparkly embellishments or a voluminous silhouette. They can be sculptural and clean-cut, but they aren’t the sort of clothes you can wear to and from yoga class. This season, however, Maeda switched up her game. She collaborated with 22-year-old Japanese tennis champion Naomi Osaka, who sat nervously in the front row (it was her very first fashion show), on a five-piece capsule collection that Osaka helped sketch. In fact, Osaka has always adored fashion and has been sketching her own designs since she was a kid. The line included an angular ruffled-hem tank and matching skirt with black lace paneling; a dramatically ruffled white gown with a black lining; and two additional gowns, one in red and black and the other belted and done in a classic pinstripe. All of it was an extension of Maeda’s fall lineup inspired by the ancient Japanese football game called kemari. Popular during the Heian period, between 794 and 1185, the noncompetitive sport was played by aristocrats in their gardens. During the games they’d wear spectacularly decorated kimonos.Maeda’s interpretation of athleisure looks something like this: velvet bike shorts lined at the sides with subtle ruffles, logo sweatbands, and tailored track pants in a mens-y plaid. Beyond that, she showed beautifully crafted pinstripe suiting and pretty but strong matte Japanese crepe dresses and tops. In fact, it wasn’t really athleisure at all, and that’s what made this collection so covetable. Maeda’s move toward a sportier vibe didn’t feel forced, and neither did the collaboration, which is hard to do these days. Collaborations—and for that matter athletic offshoot labels from established brands—are a dime a dozen. This whole collection came off as honest and organic, even with the ubiquitous bike shorts and logoed headgear. Maeda has proven herself to be a designer who never sacrifices her personality and point of view for a trend or a celebrity partnership. That’s what makes this slightly sportier new Adeam such a home run.
10 February 2020
In Japan, there’s a color palette calledyamato irothat’s used to describe the change of seasons. Foliage and spring blooms are defined by a series of some 400 shades. There’s fuchsia pink for the azalea flower, a light green for tea leaves, and a pale orange for Japanese citrus. Designer Hanako Maeda, a scholar of sorts of Japanese culture, studied theyamato irofor her new prefall collection. Pops of color gave way to modern silhouettes with touches of Japanese tradition, like anobibelt detail on a sharp blazer and a scarf dress that recalls the shape of a kimono.Where there has traditionally been a lot of bells and whistles embellishing her designs, this season Maeda focused on shape, and clean, monochrome separates like crisp shirt dresses and wide-leg tailored trousers, as well as striped poplin tops. The only print was a painterly dot pattern that wove together some of Maeda’s favorite hues in theyamato iropalette. It was pretty, but the solid colors better underscored the designer’s pivot from Harajuku punk girls and pearl-wearing kids of thekawaiitype, towards something a little more versatile.Adeam has been embraced by Millie Bobby Brown and by Michelle Obama of late—that’s versatile. Almost as versatile as the bountifulyamato iro.
3 December 2019
In the last year, Hanako Maeda has been busy building up a celebrity clientele. Michelle Obama and Oprah are fans of Maeda’s brand Adeam, and today, Maggie Gyllenhaal was seated in the front row at the Spring 2020 show. As the designer mentioned backstage, she’s also been creating a lot of custom pieces for her VIP clientele, and it got her thinking about adding more red carpet–worthy gowns and cocktail dresses to her repertoire. Maeda’s latest collection was thus directionally different, most visibly in the mermaid-inspired pearl- and Swarovski crystal–embellished tulle and organza confections that came sashaying down the runway this afternoon.Maeda has always been entranced by the Japanese kawaii aesthetic, which translates to something cute and princess-y, both apt descriptions of her floaty, ball skirt tulle dresses. It’s a fine idea and those dresses certainly were beautiful, but Maeda will really excel in the eveningwear category if she makes it an organic extension of her ready-to-wear. That means sharp tailoring and strong, structured silhouettes (less kawaii, more cool and modern), much like the black gown with one ruffled shoulder or the navy floor-length bell-sleeve dress embellished with one small line of pearls at the neckline. A wide-leg evening jumpsuit in the same hue with a cascading ruffle down the front was also peak Adeam at its most glam.That kind of architectural, intentional construction is what always makes Maeda’s ready-to-wear designs so lovable from season to season. For Spring, she continued to do daytime well with separates that recalled her parents’ hometown of Yokohama, which sits on the Tokyo Bay. Maeda riffed on sailor stripes and naval officer uniforms, the results of which were not only wearable but desirable, because they never felt too on-the-nose. They weren’t preppy or nautical, but they were personal—the special, singular items that a celebrity, or any woman, would love to own.
7 September 2019
If the Fall 2019 runway collections proved anything, it was that the idea of a pantsuit, at least one cut like a man’s, is tired. In its most powerful and purest form, a women’s suit doesn’t straddle the gender lines. It’s crafted to hug and accentuate and amplify a woman’s body, however curvy or skinny or tall or imperfectly, beautifully shaped she might be.With Adeam, Hanako Maeda’s perspective revolves around practicality, even if her designs are elevated. For her, it’s not about playing to trends. This season she showcased her talents, crafting stylish, strong clothes for real, everyday women (plus Oprah, who just wore one of Maeda’s dresses to an event).The Adeam Resort 2020 collection is based around a traditional Japanese woodblock art calledkacho-ga. These prints depict soft, peaceful scenes of birds and flowers through serene colors like pastel peach and earthy green. Maeda personified the zen-like feeling one gets when viewing akacho-gathrough a lineup of clothes that were pretty and approachable but still disciplined as far as cut and silhouette are concerned. She achieved this through the asymmetrical long-sleeve peacoat and high-waisted bootleg pant, and through the double trench worn over a pressed ruffle dress. More playful tailoring was accented in a pair of patchwork jeans paired with a matching, off-the-shoulder denim corset top. Maeda incorporated beautiful freshwater pearl detailing onto her knitwear and tops, which gave another hint ofkacho-ga-like juxtaposition between the natural and the handmade. Adeam continues to be a strong brand as far as technique goes. And with tailoring currently leading the fashion conversation, Maeda is speaking the language well.
4 June 2019
It’s not uncommon for Hanako Maeda to mine her cultural history for inspiration. In conceptualizing her previousAdeamcollections, she’s looked to the rebellious breakthrough of Japanese women in the 1920s and the origination of the Harajuku punk girl during the ’90s. Her interpretations of these zeitgeist moments in Japan are never literal or derivative; instead they nod, ever so slightly, to the signs of those times through beautifully tailored silhouettes. For Fall 2019, Maeda went back in time once again, but instead of focusing on one time, place, or style, she zoned in on a very specific group of indigenous people. The designer borrowed from the Ainu people of Hokkaido, one of the oldest tribes in Japan, known for their dedication to living in harmony with nature. They perfected the art of crafting textiles and garments often dyed using natural shades from flowers and plants. The Ainu also specialized in detailed prints meant to symbolize spirituality and the world around them.Maeda paid homage to the Ainu culture by trimming nearly every piece with texture in the form of lace, fringed ribbon, or pleating. Her main goal, she said in a preview of today’s show, was to shed light on the artisanship that was born out of Hokkaido. She wanted this season to feel handmade and organic, and she certainly succeeded with pieces like the yellow corseted jacket and the apron dress with a geometric print (look closely and you’ll make out the cleverly hidden Adeam logo). A fuchsia suit was sharp as well, as was the dramatic, strapless finale gown and a two-tone denim dress with balloon sleeves. Maeda’s aim was to turn our attention away from modern technology, at least momentarily, and give praise to the ancestors who first put their hands to a garment and made it into something spectacular. She is an artisan in her own right, and this season was proof of that.
9 February 2019
It’s obvious to state that humans are now completely dependent on their phones and computers for communication, information, and commerce. In fashion, however, despite the fact that many labels are focused on upping their Instagram footprints or selling clothes with the help of a digital avatar, precious handmade things are au courant again. Sure, there are luxury brands like Balenciaga and Maison Margiela pushing the future-is-now agenda, but consumers seem to be drawn to the finer details of a non-machine-made garment these days.Designer Hanako Maeda has always appreciated and utilized the handcrafted in her work. When she launched her label Adeam in 2013, Maeda set out to design clothes that showcased functionality and Japanese artisanship, and to sell those clothes at a not-so-astronomical price point. Her latest outing is a sort of greatest hits album, one that showcases her love for shirting, convertible clothing, the mix of masculine and feminine silhouettes, and nods to the kawaii (cute in Japanese) aesthetic.There are pretty tiny bow embellishments on the sleeves of a button-down made with water-resistant gingham, a ruffled obi-style belt that can cinch the waist of a boxy jacket, and sharply tailored bustier dresses. A plaid dress with tied sleeves is reversible, as is a cool denim ruffled top. Every piece is made in Maeda’s Tokyo atelier using fabrics like Japanese crepe and a synthetic material that feels as light as linen but won’t wrinkle.As a whole, Adeam offers a digestible, practical version of the handcrafted fashion phenomenon. Maeda isn’t asking anyone to shut down their social media pages or to stop shopping online but, rather, to buy beautiful clothes that are made for humans, by humans; this collection is proof of the allure of that simple notion.
4 December 2018
The thing about Hanako Maeda is that she makes really pretty clothes. There are others doing that too, but when looking at the overarching fashion landscape, especially in America, really pretty clothes seem like a blip on the radar. Mostly, the hype has been built around ugly-chic, tacky-chic, and crafty-chic rather than, well, just chic. Though it’s exciting and inspiring, much of the fashion currently commanding attention is unwearable for the average woman, those of us who don’t live in some fabulous universe where street style photographers bow down at our Balenciaga-platform-Croc-clad feet. Pretty clothes are refreshing right now, and for Spring Maeda executed them well. This season was, according to the designer, all about the exploration of nightclub culture, but the interpretation wasn’t at all literal. The collection was Japanesekawaiior “quirky cute,” but in a grown-up, boss-lady kind of way. It was ’90s plaid and a little prep without looking like it was ripped off the body ofClueless’s Cher Horowitz. Maeda’s designs always have a point of view and they’re never too on-the-nose.This season, she introduced bubblegum pink denim into her repertoire, which, if done wrong, could look like part of a costume for a bad tween rom-com. Maeda made it sharp by turning it into an off-the-shoulder top with balloon sleeves and blink-and-you-miss-them bows tied at the sides. Her most provocative pieces were done in black and red PVC, including a sleek trenchcoat and a corset. The designer also did great suiting, and the trenches with lacing details at the back were statement-making. Instead of putting a Japanese phoenix on a silky bomber, she added it to a structured plaid jacket and gave the club-kid favorite a much-needed makeover.Overall, the collection was diverse without losing its through line. We were seated in the old Tunnel nightclub, a New York icon of debauchery in the ’90s, and though Maeda spoke about the quirky, crafty, cool fashion that once came out of such places, her Spring collection was singular and, in a word, lovely.
8 September 2018
Designer Hanako Maeda used to bury her head in Japanese teen magazines. Growing up in Tokyo during the ’90s, publications aimed at young fashion wannabes—two of the most popular beingCUTiEandOlive—provided her with a special lens into the world of creative self-styling. Maeda learned how to layer clothes and play around with prints and textures while flipping through those glossy pages filled with quirky street style photographs. She was drawn to the Harajuku girls who mixed and matched various genres, whether skater, preppy, or vintage. These images have always informed her aesthetic as a designer, as well as her personal style, but they also provided a specific source of inspiration for her latest Resort collection. Maeda is adept at balancing literal interpretations with imaginative ones, and this season she did well in that department again.Nods tokawaii(which translates to “cute” in Japanese) fashion culture were woven into the collection by way of cotton-poplin bustier tops and dresses that can be worn on their own or over knits and easy shirting. There were removable collars and cuffs, and ties to leave loose or knot up however one might want. “Convertibility” was a word Maeda used several times while thumbing through her latest wares. This, combined with her asymmetric ruffle detailing, a new vintage bandana print, and plaid jacquard, made for a nostalgic collection that felt rather modern.
6 June 2018
The ladies of 1920s Japan had a few things in common with women today. Referred to back then as “modern girls,” they were the Far East version of American flappers, who broke with ancient traditions, celebrated their worth, and experimented with independence. “These were working-class women who suddenly had financial freedom and emotional freedom,” Hanako Maeda said backstage at her Fall 2018 ADEAM show this afternoon. “They started choosing what they wanted to wear and broke free of societal constraints, like having to wear a kimono every day—they started wearing drop-waist dresses under their open, untied kimonos and played with ideas of Western-style suiting.” Maeda borrowed from this gesture for her new collection, and the results were lovely. The opening look set the tone: A marigold trench was layered over a matching dress with soft, cascading ruffles. Then came the Western vibes in the form of structured dark denim peplum tops, skinny jeans, and a belted jacket. Some of the most successful outfits were those that tricked the eye, like the mixed fabric overlay dresses, one of which was decorated with sashes across the front and another worn with a feather-embellished sweater underneath. One of the strongest and most thoughtful garments was a gorgeously draped strapless houndstooth frock, which was placed over a long-sleeved black blouse.This was what Maeda wore to her show, and while explaining her references backstage, she looked confident in it. In fact, the designer was more outwardly confident than she has been in seasons past, breezing past each model as she put the finishing touches on the clothes and saying, “We are actually so on top of everything this season.” Self-assurance is something Maeda should have, since she has built a successful business in the past few years and proven herself a pro as far as technical design aptitude is concerned. In the past, she has seemed more nervous before shows—for many women, especially in this moment in our Zeitgeist, confidence can often fall by the wayside. We’re bound to see many designers respond to the Me Too and Time’s Up movements this week, and here’s hoping they follow Maeda’s lead. Her clothes weren’t highly conceptual, pretentious, or printed with the wordresist. They simply made up a clever wardrobe meant for a woman who wants to push herself forward.
8 February 2018
It’s only been two days, but ideas about diversity and optimism have already started to punctuate New York Fashion Week, and you didn’t have to be psychic to see it coming. If designers can do anything right now to help soften the daily blows coming out of the White House, it’s to stay away from doom and gloom and give us something—anything—to smile about. Today the talented young designer Hanako Maeda set the ADEAM Spring show inside a scene-y, intimate Chinese restaurant downtown and served lychee cocktails. Dumplings were passed around, too, which would have been enough to make any hangry editor smile from ear to ear, even if the clothes ended up being subpar. Thankfully, Maeda’s collection had joyfulness in spades.It also had a strong point of view. Maeda was inspired by a recent trip she took to Hong Kong, specifically the Soho neighborhood there (yes, they have one, too, and it stands for “south of Hollywood Road”). The area is known as a sort of melting pot between Eastern and Western cultures. As Maeda noted backstage, she saw old dim sum stands and food markets run by grandmothers and grandfathers lining streets that were occupied with cool kids dressed in sneakers, Supreme, and traditional Chinese clothing. “For me, being homogenous isn’t very exciting,” the designer explained. “I really liked how much people took liberties with the way that they dressed in that neighborhood. That’s what fashion is about: being different and expressing your individuality.”Maeda’s clothes definitely have that unique, one-off quality to them. In fact, she seems to be redefining her aesthetic with each new season, the next one more streamlined and stronger than the last. Her use of pleating and paneling merited high marks this go-around, especially when it came to looks like the rose-quartz cropped safari shirt and matching mini wrap skirt. The China blue–color dresses were also sophisticated, as were her twisted pleat bustiers and the ruffled scarf skirts. In all, this ADEAM collection had an impressive, well-conceived range, including hints of freewheeling, wear-anything ’70s disco vibes.Maeda is a real talent, not only for the way she constructs her garments, but for the way that she is able to create a meaningful, positive, smile-inducing narrative around them.
8 September 2017
There were no Victorian punk rebels or anime Harajuku girls at Hanako Maeda’s Resort presentation. Those characters were left far behind on ADEAM’s Fall 2017 runway, which ended with a thundering, slightly startling percussion performance. Maeda’s new collection is devoid of weightiness or overstylized looks. It seems as if her current mood is about embracing lightness. Even her reference board was sparse, pinned with only a few images of dancers, a couple of pastel-hued photographs of city basketball courts by artist Ward Roberts, and two swatches of inverted pleated fabric that served as her starting point. Maeda cited the work of Rei Kawakubo, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg, but ballerinas and modern dance collectives were definitely the stars of this lineup (she pointed out that she designed costumes for New York City Ballet’s fall gala in 2015).Thanks to Maeda’s love of dance, flow and movement were among the most compelling elements here. Color also played a major role. Neon-tinged pink, blue, and green pastels made some of the simpler items like sleek bell-bottom trousers and asymmetrical blazers stand out. One of the highlights in terms of silhouette was a multidimensional beige gingham dress with her new pleating, long sleeves, a one-shoulder cut-out, and a sash detail over the bodice. Maeda’s takes on classic trenchcoats were also nice, especially when looking at the quilted paneling down the back.While a few of the less technical white shirts and neutral-hued knitwear pieces weren’t as interesting, this was a well-edited collection overall. ADEAM seems to be evolving steadily; come fall, the brand will introduce a line of bags and shoes.
7 June 2017
Let’s start with Hanako Maeda’s finale, shall we? When the last model, clad in a dreamy black gown, made her way down the stark white runway, she didn’t turn. Instead, she kept going and took her seat at the drum set that had remained untouched the entire show. She began to bang on the drums, whipping her jet black hair all around and writhing like a rock ’n’ roller unchained. This was the moment that Maeda’s collection actually started to make a little more sense. At first, the looks that preceded the big loud ta-da felt somewhat all over the place, as if the designer wasn’t sure if her Fall muse was a tidy Victorian matriarch or a body-pierced, blue-haired raver. As the pretty drummer eventually personified though, it turned out that the references were meant to be mixed up and the message was supposed to be a rebellious one. Maeda clarified backstage, explaining that she was going for a “Gothic Lolita, which originated in Harajuku in the ’90s.” She added, “I really wanted this collection to be about expressing individuality and strong femininity—that doesn’t have to be about appropriating men’s clothes or androgyny; it can just be about being yourself.”Maeda’s ideas of independence and self-expression came in the form of a diverse cast wearing miniskirts layered over balloon-sleeved shirtdresses; ruched one-shouldered tops in bright blue worn over tight burgundy turtlenecks; embellished tights; and anime-esque, sky-high platform Mary Janes. There were sporty pants fastened at the side with delicate pearls and floral print dresses with black ruffles. Some pieces were cinched at the waist while others were uninhibited. The styling of the show wasn’t exactly concise but, once picked apart, Maeda’s nicely crafted, chic pieces could make for a fun game of dress up during day or night.
9 February 2017
Hanako Maeda has been mining her Japanese roots since she startedADEAM, but this season found her thinking along more introspective lines. Her starting point for Spring ’17 wasshodo, the Japanese art of calligraphy, which she chose for both its beautiful, curving brushstrokes and its meditative qualities. It’s believed that focusing on the precise (and very permanent) script helps to “clear one’s thoughts,” or at least forces you to ignore your buzzing phone and other external agitations. The fashion industry can certainly relate to that, and considering Maeda’s business doubled this year thanks to a successful Resort collection, she’s probably ready for a breather, too.At times, Maeda interpreted the calligraphy motif in literal ways, as in the charming, scribbled-on embroideries that decorated a khaki parka. There was an abstract calligraphy print, too, in a swirling black, cream, cherry red, and “porcelain blue” brushstrokes. On a ruched and twisted silk dress, the print stood to win over even the print-averse. There were subtler, more emotional details, too; cold-shoulder tops and dresses hung delicately over the biceps, recalling the graceful movements of a calligrapher’s hand. Loopy bows and knots echoed the flourishes of a brush, and the relaxed, slightly undone styling (see the cardigans pushed off the shoulders and plisse gowns layered over trousers) reflected how Maeda sees her woman as “composed, but also at ease.” Now that ADEAM is stocked by retailers from Tokyo to Riyadh, Maeda is tasked with designing clothes that resonate with lots of different women in lots of different places. The common thread? Most of those women want to look polished but effortless, and most of them shop for “items.” Maeda was wise to take that into account. You could pluck any one piece from this line-up—say, the white bell-sleeved blouse—and wear it a hundred different ways, from day to night. That’s really ADEAM’s sweet spot.
7 September 2016
On a steamy June morning, Hanako Maeda’s vision for Resort 2017 could hardly have felt more resonant. TheADEAMdesigner’s mood board was outfitted with images of traditional yukatas, the warm-weather, casual kimonos from her native Japan. They’re hundreds of years old, but something in their simplicity and offhanded elegance felt particularlyright. Worn slung low off the shoulders (think: along the lines of Balenciaga parkas) and cinched artfully but un-preciously at the waist, the garment looked definitively cool.Of chief interest to Maeda in recent seasons has been riffing on a traditional Japanese aesthetic vocabulary with 21st-century forms. Rarely has she struck upon that as elegantly as with Resort’s lushly textured shibori organzas; whipped into floor-skimming gowns and strapless crop tops, they made for a very pretty synthesis of East and West. To note of the former: Maeda’s eveningwear is an unsung strong suit. Those lovely dresses would be a welcome break from the conveyor belt of usual red carpet and black-tie suspects.The action wasn’t all after sunset, though. Maeda has honed her eye for offhanded daywear, genuinely easy, slouchy styles like her cotton cashmere hoodie sweater or louche trench in an indigo-dyed linen. Looking back to her Fall ’14 collection, when she was a considerably younger designer, spare, slightly sportif pieces like those would have been unimaginable amid her then-ladylike vernacular; her line’s evolution is a pleasure to witness.
7 June 2016
ADEAM’s Hanako Maeda is stepping ahead; her Spring 2016 collection was picked up by Net-a-Porter, a big deal for any young brand, and her follow-up Fall presentation continues, perhaps more expressively and kinetically, in the vein of exploring Japan’s cultural capital. “I looked at Japanese arts and crafts, its folklore,” said the designer. Specifically, she’s repurposed boro patchwork (“artisans, fisherman, they’d take rags from old kimonos and patch them up to use for their own stuff”) and kumihimo braiding (“it’s the weave samurai used to put their armor together”). The latter leitmotif is particularly arresting, especially when done in denim or as silvery embroidered accents on sleeve cuffs (the collection’s high mark, a lab coat dress buttoned down the front and ring-belted across the back, features the detail).Maeda mentions a focus on “separates for eveningwear,” which is a smart and relevant concept (though there are still plenty of dresses to work with, and at least five of them are under $1,000). A vertically ribbed knit—neck to floor, with gigantic braided yarn wraps at the wrists—opened in the back to reveal a bra top and mid-rise pants. The pieces nailed the designer’s intent; together, they looked very nighttime and very now. The only red flag, really, is that if you didn’t know beforehand that these clothes were ADEAM, you might have trouble ID’ing a few of them. But, given the strong bond between and subsequent evolution from Spring to Fall, and the lovely lightness of her Japonisme applications this time, Maeda is moving in the direction of finding her aesthetic signature—step by step.
11 February 2016
Hanako Maedahas been busy rediscovering her Japanese roots. On a recent trip to Kyoto, she grew particularly enamored of her native country’s architecture. ForSpring, she focused on marrying the aesthetic heritage of Japan with the lean sophistication of New York, her adopted hometown, just as East met West during the Edo period.Maeda’s clothes have never lacked in urbane appeal, so it was a particular treat to see how she incorporated traditional elements and pitted structure against fluidity. The past several seasons have witnessed the designer loosening up her once ladylike vernacular, and there was a downright languidness to these pieces.The kimono was of particular interest to Maeda, who borrowed traditional prints from those garments and elements of the obi that cropped up on a flowing wrap dress, or across the front of a long vest. Elsewhere, the knotted neckline on a gauzy maxi nodded to the process behind traditional shibori dyeing techniques, and the red, harness-like sash on a starry black-and-white gown (perhaps the strongest look in today’s lineup) echoed the tasuki traditionally worn by Japanese drum players, among others. But you could hardly hope for a more fitting marriage of the modern-day and the traditional than Maeda’s raw indigo denim mini with a flowing underlay of shibori-printed chiffon.Despite the newfound ease to her clothes, Maeda remains as adroit as ever when it comes to evening: Her strapless, obi-inspired jacquard dress (look 29) was just the antidote to overwrought red carpet fare. Between day and night, these pieces added up to the label’s strongest outing in recent memory. If Maeda has had a tendency in the past to change her course a bit from season to season, you hoped she’d stay this one.
14 September 2015
Hanako Maeda studied art history at Columbia University, and while it may not have been a direct path from there to her current role designing ADEAM, there's no downplaying the influence it has had on her collections. See: Spring 2015, with its brilliant cobalt splashes in homage to Yves Klein, or Resort '15's urbane brand of wabi-sabi. This season's inspiration was the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, whose lacy pavilions of latticework call to mind the kaleidoscopes of Maeda's childhood. Their candy-colored repetitions yielded some beautifully icy beading and a watercolor pattern that the designer printed on silk chiffon, using it to trim and tier eveningwear.Ban's direct influence, meanwhile, was a more abstracted one. It got Maeda thinking about organicism, a happy addition to her largely luxury-driven vocabulary. Raffia detailing on jackets and dresses tapped into a softly crafty mood without feeling forced; ditto the macramé top of a color-blocked gown. The industry's current yen for a sense of artful unraveling, for trailing threads and their ilk, got a nod in basket-weave pieces with long, untrimmed knit tape. That story was one of the standouts here.At times it can be hard to get a precise read on Maeda's longer-term vision for her brand. After all, Fall '14 was all fur, A-lines, and fil coupe; Resort's silhouettes skewed toward the boxy and nicely arty; and the road in between has been paved with neoprene, plush knits, the girlish, the boyish, bold prints, and no prints at all. But ADEAM is a young label, helmed by a designer whose talents are apparent. Whatever the journey brings, it's sure to be a lovely trip.
3 June 2015
Fall found ADEAM designer Hanako Maeda in a quieter mood, far from last season's Yves Klein blue and glossy heat transfers. Here was a lineup in charcoal, black, oxblood, cream, and little else. Fabrication is always paramount to the brand, but the rich fil coupe from Maeda's Fall '14 outing was nowhere to be found–though with what she showed instead, it was hardly missed. Take the dreamy cashmere-sable blend the designer whipped up and sent out in wrap tops and jackets, or a long navy wool coat with geometric designs in mohair (a statement piece without verging on full-on street-style bait). Elsewhere was a great nylon parka trimmed in curly lamb at the collar, and a nubby white sweaterdress, eyed hungrily by half the front row.While the looks on offer might have benefited from a slightly tighter edit, this was a strong showing for Maeda, with a clear message: easy, cozy, and, of course, hyper-luxe. And the designer's got only big things in the works for the coming months. In addition to the forthcoming debut of ADEAM's first ad campaign and market appointments in Paris, come February 25 Maeda opens her first brick-and-mortar location, an in-store boutique at Tokyo's Isetan.
16 February 2015
Hanako Maeda has had quite a year. Back in February she showed formal, confectionary clothes at Lincoln Center for Fall. June saw an about-face as ADEAM turned out sporty, sometimes space-age ensembles for Resort. And for Spring '15, she struck a compelling balance between the two. Bearing in mind Yves Klein'sAnthropométriesseries (part paintings, part performance art pieces in which the artist directed nude women as his "human paintbrushes"—dipped in International Klein Blue, of course), Maeda heat-transferred glossy, globule-like shapes onto neoprene frocks and separates. Fully fashioned pleated knits were at once futuristic and classic, as seen in midi dresses. The boxy, midriff-grazing tops seemed an especially long way from the relatively patrician looks on Fall's catwalk.But in many ways, Maeda dialed back the edge factor from Resort's mod androgyny. From soigné boatnecks to high-low hemlines and delicate chiffon trims, there were plenty of elements to suggest that the designer hasn't lost her taste for the ladylike. Ever a devotee of luxe materials (custom brocades, fox trim, et al.), here she sent out a stunning geometric fil coupe. It was impossible not to notice that ADEAM has some power behind it in the production department, too; intercontinental music man Michel Gaubert supplied the tunes, and Aaron de Mey handled makeup. With cohorts like these—and design chops to match—the brand's future is looking bright.
8 September 2014
ADEAM's second Resort collection flies in the face of the frothy femininity sent down the catwalk just a few months ago—more or less. Here, some of the ladylike silhouettes remained, but designer Hanako Maeda had kitted them out in conceptual accents, zeroing in on the idea ofwabi-sabi—organic beauty in all of its imperfections. Fitted shifts got asymmetrical cutout overlays; a metallic machine-knit felt more than a little like modern chain mail. This harder, sportier edge was echoed in slick, double-faced neoprenes. Slashed by glossy heat transfers in a graphic bamboo print, they felt downright disparate compared with Fall's brocade cocktail frocks. But Maeda hasn't banished her clearly feminine tastes and eye for the opulent: A foil plaid circle skirt seemed fresh here, and a leather trench with muttonchop sleeves was covetable. This new direction, with its tension of refinement and irregularity, is an exciting one; it seems safe to say that ADEAM's recently launched e-commerce site can expect a workout in the months to come.
3 June 2014
Sandwiched between so many collections billing themselves as that most nebulous of things, "edgy," an offering like ADEAM's New York runway debut runs the risk of feeling quaint in its primness. And yet, even with her hyper-feminine forms, designer Hanako Maeda carried off a collection both ladylike and relevant. Perhaps that was thanks in part to her Nobel Prize-winning inspiration, Yasunari Kawabata's 1935 novelSnow Country. While Maeda drew on both the male and female protagonists (a dilettante writer and a geisha), clearly it was the latter that won out in the end. The palette leaned heavily on delicate powder pink and icy dove gray; there were plenty of floaty yet structured party frocks. A custom brocade with a camellia print was particularly pretty, and things got a bit more femme fatale with a fitted black number that had an asymmetrical silver fox trim. Nods to the Western men's-tailoring craze that had swept Japan by the thirties were relatively surreptitious, and should please the woman who doesn't typically go for androgynous designs.
8 February 2014
When Hanako Maeda launched ADEAM (an inversion of her last name) back in 2011, she chose to accent the label's logo with a plum flower taken from her family crest. Fittingly, nature has served as a continual source of inspiration for the young designer since the beginning. For Fall, Maeda conjured up a modern woodland fairy tale. She referenced Japanese cherry blossoms during Resort, and used hydrangeas as the jumping-off point for her latest lineup today. Riffing on that theme, she developed an interesting, shibori-effect pattern by manipulating hydrangea cells viewed underneath a microscope. The blown-up biological print was shown on feminine pieces like an A-line cap-sleeve dress and a pair of shorts with sheer fabric peeking out from underneath the hem. Maeda also embroidered petals along the sides of a kicky navy miniskirt. If the collection sounds very sweet, it was indeed—particularly the flirty frocks that mixed together eyelet lace and delicate organza. Still, "every rose has its thorn," as Maeda pointed out backstage before her presentation at Lincoln Center. "All beautiful things have a darker strength, too. I wanted to do pretty pastels in grayer, washed-out tones," she said. Working in that palette, she toughened things up a bit by including more menswear-inspired silhouettes and clean lines. A slim tailored suit looked fresh styled with a structured wool bra top underneath, and longer, lilac-colored leather shirts tapped into current trends. Overall, it was a carefully considered, easy-to-wear collection. The only remaining question is, what will be in bloom at ADEAM next season?
7 September 2013
We're posting runway pictures from Tokyo fashion week for the first time ever. See the full list of designers here. To read our daily reports on the collections, visit our Style File blog. And don't miss Tommy Ton's street-style shots.
18 October 2012