PFW Tuesday: Ruohan, Anrealage and Bernadette

Two cultures that have always had a deep mutual admiration are Japan and France, so it was a pleasure to see two individualistic Japanese designers – Ruohan and Anrealage – on the first full day of Paris Fashion Week. They, and a Belgian online brand, are gaining ground in the real world.

Ruohan: Serial music, chic art gallery

Fashion and music met with considerable aplomb at Ruohan this season, in a show in which the cast marched in a quartet playing serial music composed by Terry Riley, half-hidden inside a transparent white box.

The event, held in the atrium of the Lafayette Anticipations art exhibition space, skillfully highlighted Ruohan at his best.

“I wanted to create a sense of counterpoint in both the clothes and the music,” explained Ruohan Nie, who studied cello as a child. This came through in the mellifluous manner she performed.

Created entirely in a single colour (in a palette of beige, brown, black and midnight blue), the key to the collection was soft, sculptural shapes: curvaceous shoulders, elongated waists and smooth, masculine tailoring.

Off-the-shoulder blouses, soft double-gauze pajama pants, and dresses with dimples on the shoulders. The kind of clothes a woman wears to an art gallery opening, which is what this exhibit felt like.

Born in China and educated in the fashion world at Parsons in New York and Paris, Ruohan Nie has earned a cult following for her understated, artful fashion. One of those shows you only see in Paris, best seen in the Marais on Tuesday.

Anrealage: makes you nervous

Few designers think more outside the box than Kuniko Morinaga, who celebrated her 10th year showing in Paris with clothes that billowed surrealistically on the runway.

Essentially a conceptual designer, Kuniko has chosen as her theme this season the wind and how it alters proportions, silhouette and mood, especially when garments are equipped with their own side fans. As throughout this collection, mini fans are cleverly hidden in each look.

These inflated nylon vests shaped like leaves turned into gigantic balloons, or the inflated microfibre jackets turned into twisted sculptures worthy of Antoine Bourdelle. It was a strange but beautiful moment in the bowels of the Trocadero Palace.

“My idea is always the relationship between nature and technology, like in these garments,” explains the chivalrous Kuniko, finalist for the 2019 LVMH Prize.

Like his entire public relations team, he wore a perfectly fitted black nylon doublet, with a side fan, of course, that inflated and contracted according to his mood.

Café Bernadette is open to the public

One brand worth keeping an eye on is Bernadette, a Belgian label that opened two 9-day pop-up cafes on Tuesday in Paris, to better showcase its fresh and romantically daring clothes.

Founded five years ago as a direct-to-consumer brand, Bernadette is the brainchild of mother and daughter Bernadette and Charlotte De Geyter. Based in Antwerp, their canny use of colourful fabrics, comfortable feel and generally laid-back attitude have seen Bernadette achieve explosive growth. It now sells in over 50 international retailers. This spring it launched its bridal line. Last December, to celebrate the brand’s fifth anniversary, they even created an ice sleeve for Laurent Perrier champagne.

On a rainy Tuesday morning, models in Bernadette’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection brought some optimism to the day. It’s the kind of collection where a girl wears a floor-length embroidered dress and pairs it with sneakers or sandals. And then tops it off with a leather jacket or a beanie. Digital floral prints created on iPads and used on knitwear are also key, clever elements, as are pajamas that are worn as dinner outfits, not sleepwear.

The collection delicately evokes practical and tender elements from the founders’ careers. Bernadette worked for Ralph Lauren for many years and Charlotte studied at the Royal Academy in Antwerp before working for Simone Rocha.

Located at 26 rue Reaumur in the 2nd arrondissement, the café is painted bubblegum pink and drinks are served on Bernadette crockery and glassware. It is one of two Bernadette Cafés this fashion week; the other is at 47 rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement.

The cappuccino isn't bad either.