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Tsumori Chisato

If the screened naval yard backdrop wasn’t indication enough, the illustrated warship with skull and crossbones was a dead giveaway that Tsumori Chisato had been swayed by pirates this season. As her Paris point person relayed, she took a trip to Saint-Malo shortly after showing her Fall collection. With the apparent enthusiasm of an 8-year-old boy, the Japanese designer absorbed the local tales of intrepid buccaneers who settled on these shores of Brittany when not out pillaging at sea.

And few can milk a theme quite like Chisato, who imagined a pirate’s daughter as the muse for one of her hand-drawn prints. Some looks drew more from period costume, like the ruffled blouse updated with an orange stripe down the plastron. The best of the bunch—the most on-message but least cliché—was a blue sheath fronted with the imposing presence of a galleon in intricate white embroidery. As Chisato departed from the swashbucklers, she headed underwater with trompe l’oeil painted jeans that, up close, revealed themselves as sweatpants. They were delightfully garish. Colorful shaggy stripes that ringed around coats, skirts, and tunics offered a buoyant alternative for retailers who opt out of pirates altogether. Indeed, the gossamer-thin ivory dress covered in scalloped fringes and paired with a relaxed sweatshirt in circle lace proved how Chisato needn’t always be so literal to make a splash. 

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