Nakazato: between gothic manga and black theater

(Paris) The Japanese Yuima Nakazato placed his parade on Thursday in a world of No theater, populated by dancers and models with colored hair, on the last day of haute couture in Paris under the sign of multiculturalism.

The contrast is striking between the dancers with bleached faces and in evanescent dresses who perform pantomimes, like ghosts, and the presence of women and men parading with their big Gothic-inspired boots, shoes rarely seen in haute couture.

With their asymmetrical cuts and red and purple hair, they seem straight out of manga.

The bright colors and psychedelic patterns on the kimonos and evening dresses stand out in the sober interior of the Oratoire du Louvre, a Protestant temple where the parade takes place in billows of smoke.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Yuima Nakazato, 37, who had previously created costumes for singers, remains faithful to his theatrical and experimental aesthetic questioning the relationship between the body and society.

For its last day on Thursday, the haute couture week will see Cameroonian Imane Ayissi and Russian Yulia Yanina parade in the afternoon.

Former dancer of the National Ballet of Cameroon in the company of Patrick Dupont, model for the biggest luxury brands, Imane Ayissi made history in 2020 by becoming the first designer from sub-Saharan Africa to appear on the official calendar of high sewing.

An admirer of Balenciaga, influenced by his years in the ballet corps, but just as passionate about the African textile heritage, he cultivates his cultural mix.

Yanina Couture, which has just been added to the official haute couture calendar as a member, will close the shows on Thursday evening.

Imagined as a bridge between the Seine and the Volga, the house founded by Yulia Yanina in 1993 combines French know-how and the heritage of Russian decorative arts.