The invite for Masayuki Ino’s Doublet show came with a screenshot of the iPhone Notes app, with a to-do for a seemingly average day of a designer about to show his collection: wake up, coffee, breakfast, answer emails, backstage prep, rehearsals, make-up, guest arrival (each accompanied with corresponding emojis). At the show, presented at the underground concert hall Salle Rossini in the 16th arrondissement, a spotlight hit the ground and slowly rose skyward, as a rooster crowed. In other words, the day had begun.
Out first was a girl in a knit, pleated mini-skirt and asymmetrically cut sweater vest nibbling on a piece of bread (that doubled as a purse). When she turned the corner, a fabric waistband had a trompe l’oeil print of thong underwear peeking out from it (a piece that repeated throughout on both men and women). She was followed by a young man wearing a long-sleeve T-shirt which said, plainly “watch” on the front and a timepiece woven into its wrist, while money seemed to be falling out of his bubble gum pink gym shorts.
And so the visual gags continued: girls in biker shorts carrying yoga mats; bankers with dollar bills falling out of their sharp suits; an all-night party girl in a fringed dress carrying her shoes and a bra hanging from her wrist; a trendy tourist with souvenir bags, wearing a “I ❤️ PFW” tee with a printed camera on it. There was also a man in three slightly modified variations of the same black-shirt-blue-jeans outfit, a woman in athleisure pants with a missing ad for her pet puma, dragging an empty leash behind her, and a suede jacket with a hood that looked like an open handbag. And so on.
While there were some interesting—and certainly funny—archetypes in the mix, they sometimes got lost in the broad, heavy-handed treatment. As Ino has proven in the past, he’s a skilled designer who can strike the right balance of technique and satire: here he may have tipped too far towards the latter. Which isn’t to say there weren’t some laughs to be had and some convincing enough garments (spiral cut jeans, skater shorts with a chain belt embedded in them, an oversized red leather jacket). Still, for a show titled “A Day in the Life,” the collection could have used a bit more, well, real life.
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