Noir KeiNinomiya

Ninomiya’s method is closer to metalwork or crochet than dressmaking: tulle, faux leather, chains, and molded components joined by hand into structures no sewing machine touches. Within the self-imposed limit of black — the label’s name is the rule — the work finds astonishing range: armor, roses, clouds, exoskeletons, occasionally detonated by a single show of color.

Critics routinely rank his Paris shows among the week’s most imaginative, and museum curators treat the garments as sculpture. Alongside Junya Watanabe, Ninomiya represents the Comme des Garçons group’s deepest tradition: total creative freedom, protected by independence, spent entirely on the question of what a garment can be.