Until May 28 at Villa Noailles, Hyères in the South of France, it is possible to see the Wataru Tominaga X Petit Bateau, collection capsule 2017. Petit Bateau invites the winner of the Première Vision Grand Prize 2016 to reinterpret one or more of its emblematic styles. The brand, based in Troyes, will manufacture the products designed by Wataru Tominaga and offer them to customers in a selection of stores around the world. The collection has been produced with the support of Sfate & Combier, Guigou, Debs, Tessilbiella, Luxury Jersey, Tiare, Laurent Garigue – Première Vision. Every year Petit Bateau supports the winner by promoting his designs along with its manufacturing expertise and the collection resulting from this collaboration will also be presented and sold the following year at the Villa Noailles. About Wataru Tominaga, Émilie Hammen stated:“Gender comprises a central investigation in the work of Wataru Tominaga, winner of the Grand Prix du jury Première Vision in 2016. Beyond the silhouettes, and the norms which they convey, this designer is interested in the manner in which gender is embodied in materials. Prints, colours, materials and treatments are, in his eyes, the rewritten markers of feminine and masculine types. Wataru Tominaga employed this textile investigation in his award winning collection at last year’s festival and, thanks to the grant awarded by the Grand Prix, he has developed it throughout the year with the expertise of the Chanel Métiers d’Art workshops. The silhouettes presented in this second collection exhibit a graphical examination inspired by German, Greek, and Eastern European folk arts. However, this visual register is rewritten according to the vagaries of appropriations from work and sports clothes. Pockets, zips, and hoods are called upon for their obvious functions, transposing the collection towards a style that is close to the streetwear of the 1990s. It is around these elements that the stylist applies his unique technique, consisting of pleats, destructured by vinyl coatings, which constituted one of the strong points of his first collection. This is also now blended with embroidery work created by Maison Lesage who have combined metallic laminette, pearls, sequins, and cabochons with karabiners. Climbing ropes are entwined with braids of trimmings. The graphical pleats, created by Lognon, ennoble not through silks and muslins, but through jersey fabrics whose colours evoke the performance and technical nature of the compositions. This stylist aims to offer a hybrid wardrobe through the juxtaposition of techniques, traditionally labelled with a certain idea of femininity, with cuts and shapes that bear a sporty efficiency. No determinacy in this new genre of fashion, but a unisex proposal which sweeps aside any expectations and stereotypes, even starting with its title which it too remains undefined: Untitled.” Photographie: Osma Harvilahti, 2017 watarutominaga.com
