Hanako Maeda studied art history at Columbia University, and while it may not have been a direct path from there to her current role designing ADEAM, there’s no downplaying the influence it has had on her collections. See: Spring 2015, with its brilliant cobalt splashes in homage to Yves Klein, or Resort ’15’s urbane brand of wabi-sabi. This season’s inspiration was the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, whose lacy pavilions of latticework call to mind the kaleidoscopes of Maeda’s childhood. Their candy-colored repetitions yielded some beautifully icy beading and a watercolor pattern that the designer printed on silk chiffon, using it to trim and tier eveningwear.
Ban’s direct influence, meanwhile, was a more abstracted one. It got Maeda thinking about organicism, a happy addition to her largely luxury-driven vocabulary. Raffia detailing on jackets and dresses tapped into a softly crafty mood without feeling forced; ditto the macramé top of a color-blocked gown. The industry’s current yen for a sense of artful unraveling, for trailing threads and their ilk, got a nod in basket-weave pieces with long, untrimmed knit tape. That story was one of the standouts here.
At times it can be hard to get a precise read on Maeda’s longer-term vision for her brand. After all, Fall ’14 was all fur, A-lines, and fil coupe; Resort’s silhouettes skewed toward the boxy and nicely arty; and the road in between has been paved with neoprene, plush knits, the girlish, the boyish, bold prints, and no prints at all. But ADEAM is a young label, helmed by a designer whose talents are apparent. Whatever the journey brings, it’s sure to be a lovely trip.
