Tsumori Chisato (Q5780)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Tsumori Chisato is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Tsumori Chisato |
Tsumori Chisato is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Tsumori Chisato would have preferred to shoot some of these latest looks out on the streets of Paris, but she missed the atypically spring-like weather that brought trees into early bloom by a mere day. So against painterly Plan B backdrops, her Fall collection once again put forth the French tropes from last season—only now, a little less literally. You can still make out her abstracted Eiffel Tower and the Tsu-Marie Antoinette as illustrated accents; her modified tricolor has returned as well. New here are the French expressions that appear rather poetically in the clouds, Paris rooftops below. And of course, what would a French collection be without connecting back tol’amour, which appears on an openwork jersey top.But what makes this collection so delightful is how Chisato infused Japanese fabrics with distinct Parisian flare—whether a feathery jacquard that she flipped upside down for extra texture, a delicate crinkled crepe that contours the body better than pleating, or scalloped lace embedded with her initials. Furthermore, she played around with silhouettes, shifting the emphasis on her usual A-lines and balloon shapes to ladylike elongated lines and a few boyish ensembles. If her whimsy speaks to you, in other words, this collection is full of wearable looks.As for the mini upside-down logo T-shirt tacked onto a jersey dress, Chisato decided to revive this design—one of her earliest—after an admirer brought up the idea. It reads like a cool foil to all her lively artwork. In fact, when it was suggested that she should make a book—not just clothes—out of her travel illustrations, she hinted that this idea has also been on her mind. “I hope,” she said. “Maybe soon.”
3 March 2019
It was sheer coincidence that the appointment to view Tsumori Chisato’s Paris-inspired collection took place duringActe 10of thegilets jaunesdemonstrations. Across the river, some scattered violence was breaking out; here the vibe wastout va bien. Jacket pockets shaped like the Eiffel Tower were hard to miss on a variety of sweaters, while other pieces were color-blocked in softer tones of the tricolor flag. For light dresses and pajama pairings, she drew her own tourist maps with pastel city blocks echoing the tones of Monet’sWaterlilies. Other illustrations included characters from the old regime and the portrait of a ringleted blonde who we’ll call Tsumarie Antoinette. The designer’s visit to Le Petit Trianon left an impression; she extracted such regal signifiers as ermine, now a peachy faux fur, and softened some of the fuller period shapes into reversible coats that featured painterly patterns on one side and Champagne-beige on the other.For all the fancy leanings, everyday attire kept the offering realistic. There were coordinating activewear leggings worn under dresses (Chisato encourages you to actually wear them for yoga); wide-legged jeans and overalls with trompe l’oeil bows paneled into the denim; and a ruffle-neck base layer that could be styled under just about anything. One thing there wasn’t: irony. Indeed, at any other moment, this homage would read like a love letter; even more so given the fantasy perception of Paris in the minds of Japanese (the flip side being the well documented shock known as Paris Syndrome when the experience doesn’t match up). Here’s hoping no one interprets it otherwise. Unlike other collection destinations that she merely visits, the city is Chisato’s second home. “Paris has seen so many bad things, but there is so much beautiful history,” said the designer, having just showed off a jaunty jersey top beaded with the Eiffel Tower and a little tugboat. “To me, it will always be romantic.”
21 January 2019
The Tsumori Chisato lookbook was shot along the Sumida River in Tokyo, but the collection took cues from a recent river cruise the Japanese designer took down the Nile. They share little in common but Chisato has always been adept at overlapping her different experiences. And go figure, with so many other designers channeling breezy vacation clothes and vibrant palettes, this collection doesn’t strike as random as other recent outings.That said, your interest in these printed sundresses and multicolored knits will be contingent on how attached you are to the subject matter of papyrus plants, deities, and camels. Her pointillist pastel pyramids, for instance, were very pretty as an artistic composition but somewhat specific for a dress to wear over and over again. Conversely, there was something quaint and quirky to the delicate embroidery depictions of mummies and hieroglyphs on a fresh white cotton dress. In the photos, it appears with knitted sneakers that were also quaint and quirky—a fun counterpoint to both the hyper-sleek and hyper-ugly styles.Chisato delivered some pleasing non-thematic pieces: a seersucker-like check suit which could be worn as separates, and flow-y pants in a fil coupe silk jacquard that could do triple duty on vacations. You can’t help but wonder to what degree Chisato designs for her future travels. To ask how many places she’s visited is to bore her. “I don’t count; anyway, it’s a lot,” she said. This month, the designer will have a retrospective of her work in Tokyo, and planning for it was partly why she opted out of a show/presentation. This was an easy collection both in inspiration and outcome, which means it stands a good chance of being collected by those who live vicariously through her adventures.
2 October 2018
A constant traveler, Tsumori Chisato is in the habit of transposing her exotic adventures into clothing. True to form, this season’s collection, based on a weeklong jaunt through Cairo and the Valley of the Kings, offers up a riot of color and graphics, many to winning effect. Variously, she wrote messages in ancient hieroglyphics, tacked her last initial (“EGYPTC”) on the back of slogans, and painted necklines with wide yokes of jewelry fit for a pharaoh.The designer’s wanderings through the desert resulted in inky, night blue silk pieces blanketed with gold stars, a graphic the designer noted nicely mirrors the kanji character for big. Elsewhere, King Tut mixed it up with camels, pyramids, Isis, Horus, Ra, snakes, and dogs on skateboards, sometimes with ripstop fabric layered on top. One sweatshirt showed the designer sitting astride a camel in a classic tourist-shot portrait.In a simpler vein, the desert scene was stylized as a triangle topped with a circle on easy dresses in knit or crinkled fabric. Fittingly, the designer used a lot of Egyptian cotton, quite beguilingly in a white eyelet dress and a handful of shirts that, upon closer inspection, proved to be naive renderings of Tut’s head. The Tut patch on a blue and white houndstooth jacket with gold piping was fun, too, and relatively restrained compared to some of the prints and accessories (though the figurative bags and the cap with the removable wing will likely prove novelty hits). “There’s a childish element to it,” the designer allowed, “but I don’t care. I’m free.”
26 June 2018
Tsumori Chisato must have been swept off her feet by Guatemala when she visited last October. For this latest presentation, she returned to her Pre-Fall destination inspiration, resisting her tendency to travel somewhere new from one season to the next. Her desire to stick around isn’t all that surprising: the lush landscapes, vivid colors, and craft traditions are already Chisato calling cards. For this outing, though, she seemed to be designing within some sort of augmented reality. The first clue was a psychedelic video projection featuring a ginormous skittish squirrel and pecking parrot that filled the entire wall behind a rotating cast of models. In any other scenario, this could have been distracting; yet Chisato’s boldly patterned black-and-white daywear and rainbow-bright evening looks held their own.Aside from the sombreros studded with LEDs, which pushed the limits of magical realism, Chisato’s lineup of trapeze-shaped down jackets and mod-style coats remained grounded—no small feat considering her hippie trippy headspace this season. To her credit, Chisato’s imagination saves her from falling into an appropriation trap; rather, she’s more inclined to figure out how each theme can be applied to all aspects of a wardrobe—in this case, holographic floppy hats to wacky winter boots. Skirtsuits textured like teddy bears or tricked out with studs and purple squirrels collapsed notions ofladylikeandyoung woman; the only problem is that they ended up too novelty. And so it was especially refreshing to see a coordinating pleated knit top and trousers in allover white; retailers should push her for more of that. In the meantime, Chisato’s groovy faux fur prompted the realization that she had served up a wearable twist on Fauvism—wild beasts, indeed!
2 March 2018
Forget walking on water; Tsumori Chisato’s models were dancing on it—although, technically, it was a strip of blue vinyl that curved like a stream. But the Japanese designer’s imagination is so limitless that a Pacific Islands theme via the rockabilly ’50s somehow made the simulated setup seem perfectly apropos. Unsurprisingly, this collection was loud and bright; oftentimes, the prints—Chisato’s own illustrations—were too frenetic to make out, not that this diminished their likability. By comparison, the freehand checks and stripes expressed the same creativity with greater impact.Much of the excitement emerged from the way Chisato treated raffia fringes with wildly electric colors and conjured up the ocean and its sunsets through breezy cotton layers and dégradé denim. This latter grouping will undoubtedly wash up on shores, er, in stores. Rather than the garden-variety Hawaiian shirt, Chisato offered polos with embroidered hula dancers bearing pom-poms. “I have always liked tourists’ style,” she said, without clarifying which breed of tourists. Certainly, the color-blocked, patchwork knits would come in handy for any type of travel. Even the dress bearing the wordsReef Creatures—a great band name, incidentally—with its appliquéd sea anemones and jellyfish floating across a yellow sea flocked with bubbles, could pack easily for a kooky beachside statement.Among her final looks was a knit dress emblazoned with a dancer scaled to nearly life size, and the straw skirt-within-a-skirt rendered in seafoam marabou feathers. One hopes someone will end up wearing this if only to experience people’s reactions. For a dialed-down version, try one of the leis tricked out with chains and pearls.
28 September 2017
Given that Tsumori Chisato is always drawing whimsical illustrations that end up printed onto her clothes, she has the rightful claim to the title of artist in addition to designer. With this latest outing, it was as though she fell down a rabbit hole into a surrealist’s studio. Chisato dropped hints of the adventure throughout her Bilbao-inspired Pre-Fall collection, with its renderings of Frank Gehry’s soaring, lustrous architecture and Jeff Koons’s floral puppy. But this was advanced-level creativity, with dyed goat hair paintbrush gloves and knit vests giving new meaning to “tube top.” And why stop there: Ponytails poked out of paint tube toques; tube clutches put any economy-size tub of acrylic to shame. The audio guide motif introduced last season made a mighty encore, blasting its odd shape from a jacquard sweater dress and rendered as a plush bag. And just when Chisato seemed to have transmogrified all the obvious artist tools, she went one step further with Palette Boy and Palette Girl, absurdist doodles who brush hands and smooch their paint blob lips. It’s hard to believe that all of this plays out on actual clothes, hence pieces that suggested the artist archetype rather than her vivid imagination. A hooded cape coat in oversize glen plaid with extra-long fringed cuffs, and a multicolored splotched jacquard shown as a flared pant and full skirt were attractive, inspired designs. Elsewhere, knits expressing abstracted openwork flowers and Gerhard Richter–esque stripes were as much about technique as visual interest. And if many of the silhouettes channeled the 1930s, one look featuring a shortened opera coat over a draped dress dosed art and fashion in equal measure. Here, the Japanese jacquard revealed paint tubes in rose gold thread, and the gold Mary Janes boasted brush fringes from the ankle straps.
5 March 2017
Tsumori Chisato’s post–Paris Fashion Week vacation in October was to Bilbao where she found a giant dose of inspiration at the iconic Guggenheim Museum. The blue grids that front a crisp white shirt and form a pocket detail on a down jacket represent one panel of Frank Gehry’s vast architecture, and you can see her watercolor of the city itself on a shirtdress. Most smile-inducing, however, is her appropriation of Jeff Koons’s flower-covered puppy as a cat, her preferred pet. You can just barely see it on the shirt in Look 1 and the tunic in Look 5. The visit also coaxed her to consider the artistic process and its supplies. And boy, did she get creative. There are palette-shaped appliqués and berets; a tie shaped like a paintbrush, its tip in yellow faux fur; gray flannel pants accented with a paint tube cargo pocket; and a top loosely tacked with colorfully embroidered paint tubes that swish back and forth.The stuff is knowingly campy but chances are, women will wear them, mostly because the silhouettes—palette skirt aside—are so straightforward. And just as no art pleases everyone, she added another grouping of unstructured dresses that make obvious nods to Mondrian and the Impressionists. Her final proposal suggests a trompe l’oeil, minimalist mind-set; what appears to be a white shirt and sweater coat in Look 13 is actually a single integrated dress. The coordinating top under the men’s suit jacket in Look 12 is also integrated and detachable. The fact that Chisato draws everywhere she goes, pulling constantly from experience, continues to give authenticity to her offerings. And while you may not be attracted to the sweater featuring a museum audio guide, isn’t it fun to see she found inspiration there, too?
27 January 2017
Tsumori Chisato spent her last vacation in an earthly paradise. To the rest of the world, it’s known as Guatemala. To the designer, it was a springboard for fantasy.Per usual, what she brought back with her can only be described as a joyful love letter to the colors, flavors, and craftsmanship of that country, with an accent on accessories, a rainbow aviary, and clever details. Several pieces, for example, incorporate the number 7, in reference to the bus the designer took while on tour.Included in the lineup were artisanally beaded belts, trenches with bird appliqués on the sleeves, vibrant color combinations, and lots of round-collar (or collarless) outerwear designed for layering with large-collar shirts and tunics that can easily break out as wardrobe staples all on their own.Butterflies contributed to another dominant theme, but they were subtler than the parrots, cropping up as wing-shaped pockets on ample skirts, dresses, and trousers. A white alpaca cape etched in black was a winner. Elsewhere, checks and stripes borrowed from menswear mixed with prints and blown-up weave motifs to charming effect on knits and windbreakers.Also charming were jaguar motifs in silk, worn either on the outside or as a lining, as on a parka. In keeping with the mood of the season, the boldest iteration came on a rainbow puffer. A “faux fur” peacoat offered a fresh take on a house classic. Chisato’s base counts on her for reversible coats, so there was a flattering option in lavender and beige. Perhaps it is easy for the designer to riff on whatever culture she’s visited lately because she knows how to incorporate menswear, colorful prints, and feminine silhouettes into the mix without seeming contrived.
29 January 2018
To say that Tsumori Chisato is a little all over the place applies in a few senses, starting with her ongoing quest to travel the world and subsequently conceive a collection from her memories. Most recently, she visited New Zealand, which is why a model is holding a Kiwi bird bag by its beak—finally, it gets to fly! Her translation of time in the country’s great outdoors appears as an allover illustrated print showing sheep, cable cars, cyclists, and bungee jumpers, as well as knits in which little jumper cut-outs are tethered to sweaters by neon cords. If you weren’t already aware, she has an active imagination, not to mention enthusiasm, which occasionally can result in a sense of randomness.When explained thematically during a walk-through with someone from her team, the wave scalloping, broderie anglaise collars like palm tree fronds, tent shapes, beach-towel dresses, and nature-scene camouflage went overboard. Far easier to single out were items that resonated with or without a narrative. These included a breezy color-blocked cotton-crepe grouping beautifully pleated in a way that was seemingly unique to Japanese technique (okay, so the “creperie” name was witty); dynamic dimensional knits; and fun occasional outerwear (the umbrella-striped down jacket would be a nice transition piece). Chisato also created a Christmas capsule based on her own comic character; those looks—a grown-up version of girl goth—appear toward the end of the lookbook. She came up with accessories that will make for easy, inexpensive gifts; among them, a plastic clutch shaped like a bag of chips complete withChisatoslabeling. Everyone has their guilty pleasures.
28 June 2017
Tsumori Chisatofound so much inspiration during her trip to Cuba earlier this year that she stretched out her ideas over two collections. And to her credit, the ready-to-wear offering she presented today didn’t feel like déjà vu. Gone were the maracas that played a starring role in Resort: This lineup relied less on motifs and more on specialty fabrics. The collection progressed with the minimally hued—an ivory cotton checkered textile with shimmery organza that she animated with colorful ruffle outlines and an Indian silk dappled with jewel-toned tassels—to the riotous (sequin-covered prints of her flora-and-fauna paintings). A sheer sheath with gold animal embroidery in relief was the most beautiful, although it seemed the least connected to Cuba—at least at first glance. But clearly, Chisato had done her research. The dress was intended to conjure Josephine Baker, who spent five weeks in Havana on a residency at the American Theatre before returning there in 1966, upon receiving an invitation from Fidel Castro.As a souvenir of the vintage cars, Chisato developed custom embroideries to embellish white poplin shirts. Gold headpieces aside, the looks tempered her artistic impulses with comfortable silhouettes, such as pantaloons and draped tank—or even the wedding-appropriate handkerchief dress with its crystal-covered underpinning. Chisato proudly revealed that she has collaborated with LeSportsac on a capsule collection of printed bags. Models were toting the backpack styles with their dresses and there’s no doubt the designer will be traveling with one on her next trip.
30 September 2016
TheTsumori Chisatoshowroom appointment was more animated than usual, primarily because the Tokyo-based designer was present—a rare occurrence for a non-runway collection. It didn’t hurt that her travel inspo this season was Cuba, which she visited last October. She summed up the experience like this: “Cha cha cha.”With maracas as her main motif, the clothes took characteristically kooky twists and turns, from rows of the rattles suspended between lace on a shirtdress to embroidered instruments boasting mustaches and lips applied to a natural tweed suit. As a raffia satchel, the visual was smile inducing. Chisato made a wise move by keeping her color palette tight when she could have been otherwise tempted by all those now-cliché Havana hues. A white coatdress with a striped belt that was loosely inspired by student uniforms and the blue gingham pieces with puff sleeves and red and yellow fil coupe accents were two examples of ideas that kept her Latin American source material at a respectable distance. The impression from the off-the-shoulder boardwalk blouses in broderie anglaise and smocked tops layered with flounced knit skirts was one of youthful naïveté, which has always been Chisato’s default register, whether or not it accurately depicts reality. She noted, incidentally, how many of her loyal customers aren’t that young, and she continues to address this with forgiving silhouettes—for every striped tube skirt, there’s a color-blocked tunic and coolly crinkled palazzo pant. Her joie de vivre can come across as simplistic, but she’s not out of touch.
29 June 2016
Diamonds decorated all sorts of surfaces ofTsumori Chisato’s latest collection. The twist: Most of them weren’t shiny. They appeared as jacquards on skirts and jackets and delineated within the pile of shaggy sweaters. Some boasted beaded facets while others were outlined in metallic thread. Most original was a diamond-shaped lace with a subtle pattern of stones applied as a doily collar or underskirt. The oversize diamond earrings made of metal made for a nice Magritte moment.Ceci n’est pas un diamant.Indeed, Chisato has always enjoyed maxing out a story line. But despite all the diamond permutations, she singled out some of the folksier pieces among her favorites: a candy-color coat with extra-long yarn fringes, and a jacquard of stars and other assorted shapes that could have been appropriated from children’s wallpaper. There were several other unrelated themes as well. While cowboy hats the shade of cotton candy suggested a confetti Western, dip-dyed flapper dresses slickened in clear sequins swung to an altogether different archetype. The rainbow-gradient, velvet patchwork dresses read likeDownton Abbeyon acid.Held in the Belle Epoque salons of the legendary hangout Maxim’s, the presentation seemed to say that this collection belonged neither to any era nor any reigning idea, which is a departure for the Japanese designer. But there’s nothing wrong with letting the imagination wander.
7 March 2016
Where in the world isTsumori Chisatothis season? If you looked at the barren, marshy landscape of the lookbook backdrop and the collection’s fun fur outerwear and guessed Iceland, you win. As a quick refresher, the Japanese designer tends to visit a new place following each ready-to-wear collection. Her reasoning: She comes all the way from Tokyo to Paris; why not tack on another destination before heading home? Each visit—as much for reconnaissance as relaxation—inevitably inspires a subsequent collection, which brings us to today, where loosely Icelandic tropes were well suited to Chisato’s forgiving, folkloric shapes. She rendered the aurora borealis as trompe l’oeil denim and a foggy photo print. Her interpretation of a local village qualified either as childlike or trippy. Presumably, she did not actually see a yeti—although, his patterned likeness would suggest an agreeable temperament (you can spot him grinning from the lineup’s snowy dress).Truly, Chisato’s whimsy never ceases to amaze—more so because she works it into thoughtful, advanced fabrications. One had been heat-treated to melt away designated areas, leaving a three-layer textural motif; another used stringy tassels to achieve a shadowy icicle effect from her initials. And no matter where she goes, she always comes away not only with a new visual language, but also an understanding of her environs; the mixed-material duvet coat and rainbow fun fur, as examples, would feel like antidepressant outerwear to guard against the darkest days. And if nothing more, her chunky metallic creepers will make you nostalgic for Rainbow Brite.
24 January 2016
For the first time, instead of a runway show,Tsumori Chisatoopted to stage a presentation. The cozier format forced her to self-edit, and the final cut totaled roughly half what she normally shows. This couldn’t have been easy for the persistently playful Japanese designer, who dives deep into her themes and doesn’t resurface until she has exhausted every visual metaphor. The underwater world offers no shortage of source material, all conducive to Tsumorphing: Highlights included an orange neoprene flipper handbag, metallic seaweed floating along an organza blouse, a blue tent dress bubbling with broderie anglaise, and an airy ivory number covered in delicate frond-like forms (bookmark this one if you’re planning an offbeat beach wedding). As usual, she represented herself in the collection; suited up in scuba gear, her alter ego paused at the edge of fraying hot pants and swam around the base of a wavy striped maxi dress. The oddest depiction showed her delivering a golden eye to a submerged sleeping giant. Indeed, soaking up these details would have been difficult on the runway; either you’d focus on the drawings and unique finishings, or try to determine whether the clothes were wearable—which they were. Invariably, Chisato sticks to simple dress silhouettes, easy outerwear, and basic shapes that allow the body to breathe (one exception: a Grecian-style gown with an unusual drop-waist drawstring).The models paused long enough for the eye to drift downward, discovering pearls trapped in clear platforms, like Air Max soles embedded with treasures. Chisato made sure to point them out to Kenzo Takada, who took in the 28 looks by her side. He listened intently the entire time, smiling as she spun her stories.
3 October 2015
If the screened naval yard backdrop wasn't indication enough, the illustrated warship with skull and crossbones was a dead giveaway that Tsumori Chisato had been swayed by pirates this season. As her Paris point person relayed, she took a trip to Saint-Malo shortly after showing her Fall collection. With the apparent enthusiasm of an 8-year-old boy, the Japanese designer absorbed the local tales of intrepid buccaneers who settled on these shores of Brittany when not out pillaging at sea.And few can milk a theme quite like Chisato, who imagined a pirate's daughter as the muse for one of her hand-drawn prints. Some looks drew more from period costume, like the ruffled blouse updated with an orange stripe down the plastron. The best of the bunch—the most on-message but least cliché—was a blue sheath fronted with the imposing presence of a galleon in intricate white embroidery. As Chisato departed from the swashbucklers, she headed underwater with trompe l'oeil painted jeans that, up close, revealed themselves as sweatpants. They were delightfully garish. Colorful shaggy stripes that ringed around coats, skirts, and tunics offered a buoyant alternative for retailers who opt out of pirates altogether. Indeed, the gossamer-thin ivory dress covered in scalloped fringes and paired with a relaxed sweatshirt in circle lace proved how Chisato needn't always be so literal to make a splash.
25 June 2015
Today we learned that Tsumori Chisato aspired to be a manga illustrator when she was young. For anyone following the Japanese designer season after season, this explains all the hand-drawn illustrations that appear in virtually every collection. By colliding comic books and clothing this season, Chisato offered up a lively superhero self-portrait that sprang from mod minidresses and athletic pants. A fewsponksaside, it might just rank among her strongest collections yet.The theme permitted Tsumori to go full throttle with graphics: sketched manga panels, thought bubbles, flames, spaceships, and toothy smiles. But because she stuck to a strict, Lichtenstein-meets-Mondrian palette of primary hues (plus some pink and orange), the collection felt largely cohesive.While color-blocked knitwear and puckered black separates (think Catwoman in loungewear) had staying power, other looks veered perilously close to '60s sci-fi costume. But then Chisato couldn't qualify as a superhero if she didn’t possess a flaw—hers happens to be earnestness. Fashion types will happily clothe themselves in camp as long as it's projected with tongue in chic. Here, the design reflex that interpreted a comic panel as abstracted shapes on a clean white shift was the same one that overembellished a dress with sequined thought bubbles and holographic tiling. One theory: Chisato is simply covering her retail bases, because there's no such thing as too many fans.
7 March 2015
Typically, Tokyo-based designer Tsumori Chisato will cite a certain travel destination or make-believe setting as the genesis of her vibrant collections. This time, according to her Paris point person, the clothes materialized without any overarching theme. When Chisato was here for her Spring ready-to-wear show, she visited the Niki de Saint Phalle retrospective at the Grand Palais, and her interpretation of the colorful sculptures—particularly a fantastical tree—made its way into one of the illustrated patterns for this season. The giant sun brooch blazing off various pieces also borrowed from de Saint Phalle's spiky rays. Still, Chisato's forte has never been focus, and she clearly didn't feel obliged to relate every look back to de Saint Phalle. The strongest of her various ideas: trapeze-like jacquard shells integrated with down jackets, which elevated the practicality of ubiquitous Uniqlo layering. A felted wool caftan paired with solid green trousers drew attention on account of simplicity, as did the oversize white openwork tent dress. Much of the collection, though, felt like a late-'60s/early-'70s throwback. It qualified as cute—essentially, Chisato's comfort zone—if not current.
20 January 2015
Instead of hitching her collection to an exotic vacation destination as per usual, Tsumori Chisato traveled straight into her imagination this season. With a fantasy garden as her backdrop—or sometimes in high relief—she transposed wilted flowers onto tops and coaxed bounciness from knitwear to mimic a peacock's posturing stride. Because Chisato's clothes are invariably so exuberant, one is never fully able to grasp the extent of her technical workmanship. One standout dress combined white lapels framing an open back with what appeared to be a patchwork organza skirt. In fact, a layer of cotton had been glued to nylon, and when treated with a special wash, any unglued areas dissolved away, resulting in sections of translucent color. Hand crinkling gave the illusion of fine pleats to a dress featuring alternating horizontal bands of black and white.Chisato doesn't necessarily care whether you spot the straps-as-stamens effect or the sets of eyes that peer out from deep within a garden print. And whether you make the connection that a swingy bonded suede cape is a perfect shade of peacock blue doesn't change the fact that she continues to stretch her themes thin. Such variety ensures that a bronze baseball jacket with embroidered flora will attract a different personality than the bohemian crochet dresses. And Chisato's illustrations—the latest more pointillist than usual—remain a constant, just like the cotton polka-dot sacks offered to guests each season. All evidence to the contrary, she's actually a creative creature of habit.
27 September 2014
Where in the world is Tsumori Chisato? If this question has a catchy ring to it, it also represents the unwavering fact that the designer thrives on travel to inspire her collections. Immediately following her Fall 2014 show in Paris, she headed to Greece, where the colors and imagery of Athens and the Aegean proved strong source material for her Resort offering. Schools of painted dolphins swam across floaty dresses and skirts and reappeared as a jacquard on a crisp yellow trench. Her trophy design was an openwork embroidered grouping that depicted a Greek village—Ionic columns, hilltop homes, waves, et al. Chisato, whose prints all originate from hand-drawn illustrations, outdid herself with this custom fabric. A white dress with its gauzy handkerchief pleats and layering of sun and dolphin appliqués offered the type of dreamy excuse to plan a trip somewhere off the grid.Indeed, a large part of the collection embodied the now-debatable notion of Resort, and it was refreshing to find the Japanese designer unafraid to show summery sheaths and crocheted knitwear. In typical Chisato boldness, she also tagged some of her designs, cleverly cutting a skirt so that the hemline followed the undulating script of "love TC." It still holds true that Chisato's enthusiasm can get the better of her; the superhero motifs, for example, leaned more toward Marvel than mythological. And the knee-high gladiator sandals were too obvious—and past their prime. A folkloric capelet built into a white shirt looked finlike, which may have been the point; it was certainly original, if not exaggerated. But there were enough wearable options—a shirt-and-pant ensemble vertically striped in Aegean blue, the dolphin print in black on white on a full-sleeved blouson, geometric-patterned knit separates—that the collection did not drown in kitsch.
19 June 2014
Let's make the disclaimer up front that "jungle" isn't much used anymore; these are "rain forest" times. But anyone familiar with Tsumori Chisato's wanderlust—she chooses a different geographic milieu each season—will probably concur that vibrant jungle flora and fauna gave the Japanese designer no shortage of source material today. Remarkably, this wasn't quite enough for Chisato, so she drew from the 1920s and 1950s for her silhouette story. And alliteration aside, Jungle Jazz Age is one heck of a harmony, if you can accept the fact that it will consist of bejeweled baboon faces, coconut pom-poms, and toucan-shaped shirt collars. Chisato pushed the mash-up texturally, too; extra-long tinsel stood in for fringes and raccoon fur gave the hirsute impression of gorilla.Those willing to wade through additional clichés—a barrel (or at least a half dozen) of neon-sequined monkeys swinging across two slouchy tops and a black pant—might best appreciate Chisato's arty jacquards. Some were slashed with sharply defined color, others were soft like watercolor, and one blanket-style sweater had strong modernist impact. A collection like this requires extreme cherry-picking, and you can certainly rule out the restricting lantern skirts and garish patchwork leather and sequin coat. To you, the sweater with half-moon sleeves and a fierce gorilla mug is a novelty; to Chisato, it's un-boring. Semantics is everything.
28 February 2014
Tsumori Chisato's collections are almost always birthed from places she has traveled. Shortly after her Spring '14 ready-to-wear show in Paris, the Japanese designer headed to Prague and began sketching what she saw. Evidently, she was captivated by the pitched rooftops, which appear as geometric crocheted pockets; outlined in dark leather and set against an A-line skirt or generous trousers, they established a sharp geometric focus that ran counter to the embellished, embroidered pieces appearing later in the collection. Her trip must have also involved some memorable Moravian wine—how else to account for the recurrence of claret tones and bundles of knitted grape appliqués?In fact, the most prominent motif to come out of this Pre-Fall lineup was a spry little fox that curled up on a brocade, camouflaged itself into pearl beading, and even played a visual pun as a trompe l'oeil stole around the neck of a silk blouse. Chisato further developed this character by showing an actual fluffy fur stole. But the fox on the Segway scooter was just too twee.Balancing the kawaii with clean, well-cut jackets and shift dresses continues to be Chisato's strength—but it's also her Achilles' heel. A group of looks covered in an enlarged patchwork of forms set atop black organza might have been intended to evoke the Japanese lacquer effect or Prague's cobblestone streets. Either way, they were sophisticated in shape and subtle in statement. They had substance, where much of the rest felt like souvenirs.
14 January 2014
Count Tsumori Chisato among the few designers today who give their imagination complete free rein. Because she brings a sketchbook with her everywhere, her spontaneous drawings invariably materialize into designs. But in order to assemble the clothes into a collection, she constructs a narrative that's often cohesive to her alone.For Spring, her muse idled through the Japanese countryside, got dolled up in Europe, flirted with dragonflies, and ultimately settled on the moon—all while rarely stopping to remove her conical hat. Chisato wrestles with—and mostly gets the upper hand on—personalizing traditional Japanese garments by imposing her doodles and madcap fabric blocking. By now, those have become her codes. But she also charted new territory with materials that registered as more artisanal: crocheted raffia, cotton treated to resemble Japanesewashipaper, and white organza that had been manipulated to mimic lace. While Chisato can make you smile with an illustration that shows lipstick on a shark, she can also make you dream about a summer spent exclusively in her all-white grouping.She could have stopped there, or milked that message with a few extra variations. Yet Chisato would rather express the widest range of ideas than self-edit, so she also showed relaxed sportswear, printed swimsuits, and ladylike dresses. The collection was far bigger than it needed to be: fifty-four looks in total. But Chisato defended this by saying she simply likes to make things. She even seemed surprised to be asked about the number of looks. And how, in fairness, can you tell a designer to dial down her creativity?
27 September 2013
At Tsumori Chisato's Resort presentation today, a school of stylized squid covered a trenchcoat, and abstracted, embellished clamshells floated atop swingy dresses. The designer and her gal pals were rendered in cartoonish glee against the backdrop of Venice on a diaphanous number with a ruched Empire waist, and she also appeared on a midi-length shift, surrounded by giant seaweed fronds. Chisato's clothes are very much the product of her dream world. This isn't a new direction for her; it's just the type of vision that can occasionally swallow you whole. When used more judiciously, the sea world theme allowed Chisato to work in some playful details, like the clams that doubled as pockets on an A-line coat. The Venice story also played out nicely in hazy print skirts and pants. A net was interpreted on a sea-foam dress as a grid of shimmery gold, and a coral pattern was certainly much livelier than a conventional stripe. Still, it's telling that the strongest statement of them all was a black and white dress with cropped bell sleeves that bears no relation to marine life. Chisato is so attached to her naiveté that perhaps she doesn't realize how good she can be when she's on drier land.
24 June 2013
Do lobsters feel pain? What happens when we die? Is one polka dot a polka dot, or is it just a circle? These are a few of the philosophical questions raised by Tsumori Chisato's typically eclectic, but unusually chic, new collection. The fact that this collection made heavy use of a lobster motif—part of a larger marine reference—was par for the rather surreal Chisato course. Ditto the fact that the designer decided to elaborate the aquatic stuff with a friendly ghost print, and graphic checks and stripes that looked hand-painted. No, the strange thing here was the sophistication of Chisato's silhouettes. There was something imposing about her capes, and the dresses with long, slender bodices and fanning tails of ruffles or pleats, and a couple of lapel-free coats with patchwork waves of gold. A red peplum top with crystal-embroidered lobsters was really quite natty, as was an ocean blue quilted jacket with lobsters clawing at its oversize buttons. Inevitably, this Tsumori Chisato woman was a bit of an oddball, but she was an oddball with class.
1 March 2013
In another lifetime, Tsumori Chisato would've made one heck of a tour guide, so vivid are her homages to the places she's visited. For pre-fall, Buenos Aires provided the inspiration for colorful architectural prints, the boat-rigging motif, and a matador suit. Only the most adventurous of customers will go for the shift dress printed with ropes and life preservers. But as eclectic and irreverent as she is, the designer also has a practical streak. Tucked in amid the dresses, the trompe l'oeil separates, and the cat-face T-shirts were some multifunctional coats with removable and reversible down linings. Perfect for a busy traveler, just like Tsumori.
15 January 2013
Planet Tsumori Chisato must be an interesting place to live. Actually, scratch that: The people who live on Planet Tsumori must think that Earth is pretty madcap, based on the dispatches Chisato sends back in each of her collections. Last season, she wrote a memo from the Alps; this time out, her brethren received some hallucinatory reflections on the desert Southwest, replete with O'Keeffe skulls and stargazing.This was an eclectic collection, to put it mildly. But there were a few key themes, in particular a green print of mountain peaks that Chisato abstracted into jagged ruffles and an intarsia pattern on her ultra-fine, Missoni-esque knits. Elsewhere in the collection, Chisato's gaze lifted beyond the horizon and took on the desert's endless sky: She introduced a childlike print of moons and stars, and sunset panoramas that she abstracted, again, into bold tie-dyes. Other motifs included painted portraits of the sunset watcher/stargazer herself, framed by piping, and an image of an antelope skull with a rose in its mouth. The latter was definitely odd and the kind of thing liable to put off visitors to Chisato's world. But there's a method to her seeming madness, and if you looked closely, this collection was well stocked with grounded, wearable pieces. Chisato's fine intarsia knits, for instance, were terribly chic. And the denizens of Planet Tsumori will have a lot of love for a sequined cocktail dress emblazoned with the image of a rearing white horse. Earth: It's magical, isn't it?
28 September 2012
Tsumori Chisato took a breather in Sedona earlier this spring, and the trip proved a starting point for her new pre-collection. But instead of pursuing a literal desert theme—although she's posted pictures of cacti and sandstone formations on her blog—the Tokyo-based designer directed herself toward a message about high-wattage flower power.It's a graphic mix, to be sure, with Magic Marker grid patterns and oversized daisies pushing her cartoony style further toward childlike. The risk here is that no woman wants to wear her 6-year-old's doodles. In most cases, however, the hand-drawn flowers—appearing in repetition on a peasant blouse or as a single stem sprouting off a tunic dress—remained on the right side of playful, especially when paired with maxi skirts, some smocked with a quilted belt that emphasized the waist.For a crisp, commercial counterpoint to the fluoro cuteness, the designer created a grouping with sinuous lines in carmine red, ivory, and navy. She also modified the bridge of preppy two-tone penny loafers with cat ears (it wouldn't be a Chisato collection without a feline cameo). Her spin on outdoorsy included a striped poncho and an electric blue parka with bat-wing sleeves and pylon orange trim. Meanwhile, Wallabee-inspired wedges in silver lamé veered more toward ABBA than Arizona.Chisato's version of literal looks something like this: a limeade coat watermarked with various circles that, in a more traditional context, would have featured chinoiserie. Inside hers were a combination of emoticon smiles and winks. But far be it for anyone to decry it as kitsch; she's clearly in a happy place.
30 June 2012
Siouxsie Sioux turned Swiss Miss. That was the broad outline of Tsumori Chisato's Fall collection, inspired by a holiday in Switzerland. The backdrop of a ski slope was rendered in neon squiggles, and there were bright slashes of color on the high sides of models' back-combed hair.The clothes merged a DIY spirit with classic après-ski. The punky checkerboard print, mixed with intarsia ski sweaters, looked painted on, and Chisato's new version of the Fair Isle cardie came with naïve little appliquéd flowers, the kind of thing a melancholy but industrious teenager might do in her bedroom.Then there's Chisato's personal touch, quite literally DIY. Her personal tic was an obsession with the gondola cars of ski lifts, knit into intarsias and lovingly picked out in sequins on a sweater dress. And all the photo prints of chalets, snow-covered treetops, and slopes—on dresses and one fab pair of jeans—were the designer's vacation snaps.Chisato was a touch less cartoony than she's been in seasons past, but there was no lack of her infectiously charming eye for detail that make her clothes stand out. You aren't likely to find a crocheted V-neck with abstracted evergreen motifs and dotted with tiny crystals like snowflakes. Tropical islands last season, Alpine slopes this one, Tsumori Chisato has been in a peripatetic state of mind. Wherever the next journey takes her, her fans will be ready for its unique crop of souvenirs.
2 March 2012
Tsumori Chisato couldn't have known that Paris fashion week would fall in the midst of a European heat wave. She just got lucky. Her retro pinup parade of cat-eye sunglasses, matchy-matchy twirling parasols, bright zigzaggy crochets, and campy postcard prints seemed enviably appropriate. Even more so considering the glass and cast-iron Art Nouveau venue of Le Centorial. All that was missing were the mai tais.Chisato said she imagined Japan as an island in the South Pacific, while also loading up her basket with a host of other tropical cultures like Costa Rica, Cuba, and Miami. But ultimately, her imagination is a republic unto itself—a place where Godzilla breathes fire onto sequin mermaids, and palm-tree leaves merge with hula skirts in raffia trim on sweet little T-shirts. As ever, Chisato's collection ran the gamut of the silly-but-cute and the cutesy-but-chic. In the latter group were the crocheted cardies, a striped knit midi dress, all those abstract watercolor florals, and, hey, even some of the parrot-and-palm prints on airy chiffon frocks at the end. Of course, Chisato's sensibility translates particularly well into small-dose accessories, like the whimsical carved and printed cloth-covered platform sandals, and the swimwear. Consider those her postcards from Chisato World to you.
30 September 2011
Tsumori Chisato took a trip to Finland earlier this year and managed to catch the northern lights. That explained all the stripy color-blocked knits and tights in the beginning of today's collection. Worn with cotton-candy-colored knit helmets and big round glasses in the memorable style of the lateNew York Timeseditor Carrie Donovan, it was a bit of après-ski on acid, or maybe Smarties and a touch of imagination. Chisato soon turned her gaze earthward with autumnally hued Fair Isles in a dolman-sleeve dress and even a parka with full fox-fur sleeves.A bit like Anna Sui or Vivienne Westwood, Tsumori Chisato generally operates in a trend-vacuum outside fashion's city limits, but that so-called gorilla arm is one she hit head-on. It was repeated in a loden wool coat, which, if you looked closely, had masquerade-ball masks as its toggles. That was part of the surreal direction of the last half of the collection, which all began with a Schiaparelli-esque print of disembodied hands and faces. It led to Chisato's take on twenties-era elegance, like a Tokyo-via-Deauville striped sweater with a glittery pink star on its shoulder, or a sweater-knit jumpsuit that gave the trompe l'oeil effect of a chic little Chanel-ish suit and blouse. Perhaps it was just the nature of the ladylike source material, but there was a slightly more grown-up attitude to Chisato's typically childlike wonderment. It wasn't a whiplash change by any means; more of an annex in the happy little world her die-hard fans adore.
4 March 2011
Fashion's default speed is fast-forward, so it's no surprise when time flies. But it was news to some that this year marks Tsumori Chisato's 20th anniversary. To celebrate, the Japanese designer explained backstage, she made this collection a sort of repository of her favorite things. There were no raindrops on roses here, but there were whiskers on kittens—if you count the leopard motif on the fabulous cat-face sunglasses or a cartoony print of the big cats lounging around with black clouds.What else goes on that list? "A colorful pop feeling," the designer said through a translator. That was present in spades, but in some ways this collection seemed to be an homage to the city where Chisato has shown for the past seven years, a location that has helped to expand her reach beyond Japan. The look was a sort of mixed-up, manga version of the Parisian gamine/sophisticate, with smartly girlish dresses in bold childlike prints, finished with proper little hats and fab spectator oxford wedge booties. And the preponderance of sailor stripes, rendered in multiple quirky knit forms, seemed a nod to quintessential hometown girl Sonia Rykiel.Chisato said she fell in love with the midi hem after seeing the Met'sAmerican Womanexhibition earlier this year. The longer length worked to cut the cutesiness factor that can sometimes send things overboard at her label. Maybe she'll make the midi another favorite thing to add into the mix for the next 20.
1 October 2010
If Vivienne Westwood and Celia Birtwell had a child, raised it in Japan, and reared it on a diet of manga cartoons and Disney films, that child would grow up to be Tsumori Chisato. With Pierrot dolls, gypsies, and circus performers all jostling in her latest collection as inspirations, resulting in a whirl of stripes, bright colors, and intricate illustrations, hers is not an aesthetic for the minimalist. But a glance at the very colorful audience attending Chisato's show proved that there are plenty of people who are happy to think of their bodies as canvases for clothes, as opposed to thinking of clothes as canvases to flatter the body.In fact, like Birtwell and Westwood, Chisato can be deceptively restrained with her everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style. Well, mostly. If any woman out there felt that her life was lacking a double-layer ruffled mini cape in orange and purple, this gap is now filled in her wardrobe. Yet, these occasional slips into OTT-ness aside, Chisato almost always thinks carefully about the effect of the clothes on the onlooker. Thus, there were some terrific color combinations once the monochromatic opening section passed, such as a purple jacket with black frogging and a large brown cape with heavily stitched red pockets. A black velvet bolero crusted with gold trim looked particularly good over a paisley playsuit, with the former playing down the intensely patterned nature of the latter, and the latter adding some fun to the sober glamour of the former. Chisato's skill with patterns has attracted the canny attention of Le Petit Bateau, and their collaboration will be in stores in November.The theme of the collection was circus, which must be up there with rockabilly and the filmBelle de Jouras an overused fashion inspiration. But true to form, Chisato used her inspiration as a mere starting point, morphing quickly into hippie gypsies in paisley and woodland fairies wearing long, luxe gowns. Aesthetically, it was a treat, and it left one grateful that Chisato had found fashion in which to channel her clearly abundant energy and imagination. If she had turned instead to, say, literature, she'd probably be churning out 2,000-page sci-fi fantasy novels.
5 March 2010
Not since the Japanese first stormed the Paris scene, in 1983, has the Far East been such a preoccupation of the fashion flock—both in terms of trends (Roberto Cavalli's Ming vase prints) and business (new stores in China and/or Japan from Prada, Giorgio Armani, and Louis Vuitton). That's good timing for Tsumori Chisato, a designer who is "big in Japan" and now starting to make inroads into the Western market.A graduate of Tokyo's renowned Bunka Fashion College, Chisato started working in 1977 for Issey Miyake, who helped her launch her own line in 1990. She first brought her collection to Paris in 2003 and has been quietly building street cred with cool girls in Los Angeles and New York. Her fall collection stayed faithful to her aesthetic, which is print-heavy with a healthy dose of manga/bohemian cuteness. The show took wing with the first look, an owl-appliqué minidress, and closed with homey quilted frocks that tied into the vague Bloomsbury theme at play throughout. There were a number of pretty dresses: some dramatic with pile stripes, a requisite velvet number, and others with tree appliqués and a patchwork of fun, flirty prints. The second look was a simple white pinafore that recalledPeter Pan's Wendy—and served as a reminder that, for every governess that came down the runways this season, there is a corresponding youthful charge. Chisato is ready to dress her.
2 March 2005