Auralee presents a surprising debut show at Paris Men's Fashion Week

With Auralee, Paris Men's Fashion Week adds a new name to its calendar. The Japanese brand's debut show on Tuesday, the opening day of fashion week, proved that Auralee has fully earned its place at the prestigious men's fashion event. The brand's elegantly balanced new collection reinterpreted everyday wardrobe essentials, placing an emphasis on luxurious materials developed in-house.

Kobe-born Ryota Iwai, 40, founded his men's and women's ready-to-wear brand in 2015 in Tokyo, where he operates two stores. In 2019, Auralee joined the presentation schedule of Paris Men's Fashion Week, confidently carving out a niche for herself.

For his label's first runway show, Iwai focused on that special moment at the end of the workday, when people leave the office eager to get home, or with the bright prospect of a night out, watching a runway show or meet your friends. Some have had time to stop by the dry cleaners to pick up their freshly pressed dinner suit, others have put their down jacket or sweater in a bag, and some still wear a lanyard with their office ID around their neck.

The models walked the runway with instinctive, elegant indifference, combining sophisticated outerwear with work clothes, such as the beige denim jacket seemingly cut from the thick canvas used to make traditional jumpsuits, and with more classic business suits, such as the suits. comfortable and generously proportioned.

Iwai has liked to mix and layer garments and materials. She wore a cropped tweed jacket with slightly rounded sleeves over an ultra-soft hoodie, over a light cashmere sweater. A long mauve jacket slipped over a gabardine coat that in turn covered a suit. Bright colors like red, turquoise and violet blended effortlessly with more natural tones.

Auralee presented magnificent jackets made with a new fabric, a reversible terry wool, along with a very resistant and light alpaca down parka. All the coats were impeccably cut, and one model wore a light tangerine-colored cardigan under her suit jacket, instead of a shirt. The entire collection exudes quality, through the softness and fluidity of the garments.

Auralee manufactures its fabrics in-house and sources yarns and fibers from leading suppliers around the world: Peru for alpaca, New Zealand and Scotland for wool, and Mongolia for cashmere. Iwai then develops the fabrics independently in Japan, where the collection was produced. In just a few years, Auralee has made a name for itself and now employs 12 people, plus another 15 who work in its stores. The brand is distributed through about 100 multi-brand retailers in Japan and another 110 abroad, especially in South Korea and the United States.

Labeling Iwai fashion as quiet luxury would be simplistic. How would it be to describe their garments simply as functional, given the level of care put into their details and quality. The soul of Iwai's creations is his meticulous textile research. As he himself said, “fabrics make clothes. I'm not interested in ostentation. “My clothes just allow people to be who they are.”