IM MEN presented its Spring Summer 2027 collection, In Praise of Bamboo Shadows, at Césure in Paris, a cultural venue inside a former university campus in the city’s 5th arrondissement. The setting supported a collection built around motion, layered visibility and soft shifts in form. Through clothing, the season explored the feeling created by bamboo shadows, where outlines move, overlap and drift between presence and disappearance.
SPRING SUMMER 2027
The collection drew from East Asian decorative arts centered on bamboo motifs, which IM MEN first encountered during a visit to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Mist covered bamboo forests from ink wash paintings and katazome kimono dyeing stencils shaped the visual direction. The layered branches and leaves gave the collection a language of depth, rhythm and shadow, translated through surface, construction and volume.
The scenography extended the idea into space. Black bamboo and shade created an imagined environment, while figures moved behind a veil in the distance. Their forms appeared gradually, softened by translucency and shifting layers. The presentation treated the collection as an act of looking, where garments revealed themselves through movement and changing distance.
The Bamboo Shadows series used patterns by graphic designer Rikako Nagashima, who studied the shapes cast by bamboo shadows. IM MEN printed the designs with ironaki, a Japanese dyeing technique, on fabric made from bamboo fibers and organic cotton. A double front coat with generous dolman sleeves carried the pattern across the body. When worn with the hood raised, the garment wrapped the wearer in bamboo shadow from head to hem.
Bloom Nylon introduced high density nylon with a crisp paper like texture. The brand used a dye flow technique to create tones that recall bamboo leaves and flower petals. The collar, formed through overlapping tucks, referenced the jūnihitoe worn by Princess Kaguya in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Bamboo Bleach translated bamboo imagery into denim through hand dyeing and discharge printing. Artisans left the base color along the seams, creating tonal gradations linked to ink wash paintings. Finer yarn gave the denim a lighter texture, and the jacket allowed the wearer to cinch the waist for a closer line.
Basket Jacquard brought structure into focus through jacquard weaving. The fabric recreated the interlaced form of bamboo strips used in the gozames bamboo weaving technique. Recycled polyester formed the warp, while nylon and polyurethane shaped the weft, creating a lightweight stretch material. The blouson came from a single rectangular pattern cut with slits for the body and sleeves. The pants used volume and a tapered hem to echo the same idea. Piping along the edges referred to bamboo edging techniques.
Bamboo Pleats and Node Pleats continued the study of bamboo through hand pleating. Valley folds, repeated undulations and node like rhythms gave the garments three dimensional structure. Bamboo Sheath used hand painted brushstrokes to suggest bamboo shoots, fibers, sheen and layered skins, while the pants created a wrapped draped silhouette. Void Cotton removed pockets to create negative space, allowing new layers to appear between body and garment. Chimaki Leather Bag took its form from the traditional food wrapped in bamboo leaves, using oil rich natural leather that softens and gains luster with use.
The collection also presented SORTIE VEILED, the second model from ISSEY MIYAKE FOOT. Developed by Miyake Design Studio and ASICS, the shoe builds on the 1980s SORTIE marathon series. A single fabric veil encloses the structural elements, creating a monochromatic sneaker that keeps comfort and mobility while entering everyday dress.
