Auralee’s Ryota Iwai was voted one of fashion’s most underrated designers by Vogue Runway readers in our 2024 industry poll. A male model, who was one of the many insiders that packed the room at the Auralee show this afternoon, wrote in “What he shows, he sells.”
It’s easy to see why Iwai’s profile has risen over the past year. The Japanese designer has a uniquely sharp lens: Not one to fall into the trappings of a seasonal theme, he designs around observations from his daily life. This could mean anything—or easily nothing at all, in lesser hands—but here it’s an anthropological sartorial experiment; one that was particularly timely this season as it touched on personal style. Not in the TikTok-y, Fashion Week street style-y definition, but in how one can imbue a sense of self into what one wears. Iwai explained via a translator that for inspiration he looked at a “slightly” older friend who could wear anything from “an elegant wool suit to a raggedy band t-shirt” and yet one can still “feel his identity.”
Think of this collection as one person’s wardrobe rather than disparate propositions. Such a closet would contain Auralee’s greatest hits—a suit, a wooly skirt, a nice puffer—alongside “heirlooms from one’s past,” also by Auralee, of course, that produce an element of individuality. Enter a contemporary riff of a vintage Perfecto jacket, deliciously cropped to the waist; crafty mittens flopping down from the neck like scarves; and shrunken knits evocative of those treasures from our younger selves we cling to even when they no longer fit. All imbued with a well-worn, well-lived patina.
With Auralee there’s also the fabrics. Those fleecy ’90s-style anoraks? They were actually silk. The suiting in the opening look? A cashmere moleskin that poetically glistened under the runway lights. And the fuzzy teddy-like material in some vests and that fabulous skirt suit? Moleskin shearling, thank you very much.
About that influx of attention, Iwai said he is happy and grateful, but that it doesn’t change what Auralee is about. “We are still going to take our time and make things that feel personal,” he declared. And that’s exactly why its working: It’s not that Iwai’s proportions and materials are just right—though they are—it’s that his clothes are styled with such convincing precision. A first-timer at today’s show—one of those extremely well-dressed fashion guys—said he decided to attend today to “feel inspired.”
