ANREALAGE “SKIN”: A New Surface, Continually Rewritten
For ANREALAGE’s 25th presentation in Paris, Kunihiko Morinaga explores clothing as a living surface — transforming, shedding and renewing itself between the biological and digital worlds.
PARIS — For “SKIN,” a pivotal collection marking ANREALAGE’s 25th presentation in Paris, designer Kunihiko Morinaga turns his attention to the outer surface of the body and the idea of constant transformation.
The collection considers a surface that can be shed, renewed and rewritten while the self beneath remains.
From the shifting colors of living creatures to the interchangeable skins of video-game avatars, appearance becomes fluid across biological and digital worlds. Between these two realities, clothing becomes a skin in flux — no longer a fixed surface, but something capable of continual change.
At the heart of the collection is the firebird, inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, representing perpetual renewal and rebirth across time.
A live performance of the 1919 version of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird accompanies the show, reinforcing the collection’s themes of transformation and regeneration.
SCALES
Presented at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, the collection unfolds as a gradual mutation, beginning with second-skin all-in-one silhouettes before developing into increasingly engineered constructions.
Scale by scale, a new skin emerges through a patchwork of materials, patterns and effects.
Motifs printed using KYOCERA’s water-saving FOREARTH technology meet traditional fabrics, while Toray Ultrasuede forms scale-like surfaces featuring trompe-l’œil video-game costumes and robot graphics.
Japanese washi is contrasted with translucent, light-reflective sequins designed with a peeling effect.
Bodysuits merge tailoring, outerwear and dress details into continuous constructions, creating a single layer around the body. Organic and digital references converge as chromatophore-inspired surfaces meet a pixelated visual language.
With SEKISAI’s proprietary “Effective Skin” technology, 3D-printed scales shift color depending on the viewing angle, creating an effect reminiscent of Op Art.
THE SKIN TRANSFORMS
The transformation reaches its most technically elaborate point with six armor-like cocktail and evening dresses.
Each garment is animated with between 1,000 and 2,000 individually controlled E Ink electronic-paper scales, capable of changing color almost instantly.
Unlike LEDs, the scales do not emit light. Instead, the material itself changes color.
Vivid hues appear and disappear like cells suddenly filling with pigment, shifting before draining into ash gray. New patterns then ripple across the garments in increasingly complex formations.
Beneath the surface, a dense network of wires connects the scales, resembling hair or feathers growing from the skin, with AI mapping the circuitry.
The garments become living surfaces — technological structures capable of continuously rewriting their appearance.
REBIRTH
The show closes with a futuristic parable.
A lone model appears in an LED digital skin revived from last season, the body glowing as the live performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird brings the presentation to an operatic conclusion.
The firebird becomes the final metaphor: a being that transcends time, capable of existing far beyond the human lifespan.
In this imagined future, clothing takes on another dimension.
Not simply a second skin, but a “third skin” — adaptive, enduring and continually reborn.
For ANREALAGE, “SKIN” transforms fashion into a meditation on what remains constant beneath perpetual change, and what clothing might become when its surface is no longer fixed.
ANREALAGE — “SKIN”
Designer: Kunihiko Morinaga
Paris: Maison de la Radio et de la Musique
25th Paris Presentation
