Designer Yasutaka Funakoshi is no novice when it comes to creating beautifully constructed, exquisitely detailed avant-gothic pieces. In the nearly 20 years since launching his line Alice Auaa, his talent and boundless creativity has garnered a massive following both in the gothic lolita subculture and with museum curators around the world. (Such as at the V&A where the pieces from the designer's archives are currently on display.)
While the pressure of this enormous reputation might be creatively stifling for some, Funakoshi clearly is able to take it all in stride as the Spring 2013 Alice Auaa Runway Presentation was nothing short of spellbinding. Using the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland as a starting point, Funakoshi told his own dark and richly ornate tale of a young girl on the chase after a rabbit.
As the show began we saw a somewhat fearsome (and definitely a little bedraggled) looking rabbit cross the runway, before the our main characters Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, various cards, and of course the Queen of Hearts made their procession in front of the audience. Garbed in boned corsets, layers of netting, satin ribbons and plenty of peek-a-boo skin, the looks banished all thoughts of Disney-tales from the mind and instantaneously replaced the Alice we all know with a new dark, and utterly enticing version.
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ll images: C.Hope /S.Whittle for Style Wylde