As with every collection, ADEAM’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection draws inspiration from Japan, designer Hanako Maeda’s home country, and for this collection, specifically its contemporary art. At the end of last year, designer Hanako Maeda visited the STARS exhibit at Mori Art Museum that showcased the works of six artists who shaped Japanese art from the 1950s to the present. Ranging from sculptor and installation artist Yayoi Kusama to photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto—the artists vary in medium, technique, and references but share one thing: the pursuit of creating universal art through meticulous attention to detail in merging different aspects of Japanese culture and history. An example of this is Takashi Murakami’s “Superflat” art that is informed not only by modern anime and manga but the classical Edo period woodblock prints, ukiyoe.
This idea of bringing traditional Japanese artistry to the modern, international audience inspired the Fall/Winter 2021 collection. This season, Maeda honed in on craftsmanship, beginning with the creation and manipulation of fabrics. This led to the fabrication of Crinkle Pleated Poplin as well as the various pleated fabrics this season. In this new fabric, the pleats are engineered into each piece by the precise hands of Japanese pattern makers so that when released, they billow gently in the hemlines of dresses, skirts, and pants. Knife pleats and soft ruching in our Japanese Cotton and Striped Shirting fabrics are manipulated to interesting effect: asymmetrically on dresses, as shoulder trims, and replacements for darts.
The collection’s color palette is inspired by washoku, the traditional colors of Japanese nature. Scarlet red and vibrant violent shades are foregrounded by muted shades of rose quartz and ice blue in crisp tailoring fabric fashioned into romantic silhouettes of smocked waistlines, scooped square necklines, and dramatic puffed sleeves. The bold, new ADEAM monogram appears as a lustrous print in blouses, dresses, and trousers.
ADEAM participated in the NYFW for FW21 with a beautiful digital presentation-video:
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