For its Spring-Summer 2027 collection, presented on 2 October at the Dojo de Paris, Issey Miyake pairs Wacoal with a series that freezes a gesture of draping in sprayed resin. It is the most technical piece in the collection.
Figure of Ma, the collection by Satoshi Kondo, revolves around a space: the one that arises between fabric and body. Almost everything in it is air, fold, balloon, transparency. Cocoon Body takes the opposite approach, since it is the only series in which what surrounds the body has been fixed.
The process unfolds in four stages. Pieces of still-damp fabric were first draped on mannequins. This drape was then scanned in 3D and transposed into a mould that reproduces both the bust and the fabric in their finest detail. The mould is fixed to a robotic arm, beneath a device that sprays molten resin: the principle recalls the way a silkworm spins its cocoon. The garment is what is deposited on the mould.
The technique comes from Wacoal, a Japanese lingerie house. It is called Melooop, was developed in 2020 and was first used to produce bra cups. It relies on melt-blowing: resin granules are melted, extruded through nozzles, then drawn by a stream of hot air into ultrafine fibres that fuse together to form a nonwoven, without adhesive. The robotic arm, programmed to move with precision, adjusts the shape, thickness and elasticity of the piece. For Cocoon Body, the material contains 60% plant-based granules. Wacoal also states that offcuts and surplus from this process can be turned back into raw material, which allows production without waste. This last point is a statement by the company, and the material has not been examined here.
Here is what this process shifts. A drape is a gesture: it is made, then it falls. Here, that gesture has been captured exactly as the designer made it on wet fabric, then preserved in a hard form. The garment keeps the memory of the original draping. The fabric served as the pattern for the mould, and the mould became the garment that replaces that fabric. The boundary between bust and cloth becomes blurred, since the piece takes up both the relief of the torso and the folds laid upon it.
The criterion of judgement is therefore that of the collection itself. Figure of Ma promises a garment that sways when walking and bounces when running. Cocoon Body is announced as setting itself in motion as if it were breathing with the person who wears it. It remains to be seen, on a moving body, whether a moulded resin keeps that promise. Weight, suppleness and hold over time are not documented.
Cette publication est également disponible en :
