Led by Mikio Sakabe, grounds held its Fall-Winter 26/27 show at Paris Fashion Week. Working with everyday repetitions, the collection starts from footsteps, a crucial movement that determines the near future with precision in a single line, followed by the collection’s central element: hair. Shown in sculptural and out-of-the-ordinary formations, hair hides the models’ faces, bringing their backs to their fronts and their fronts to their backs, moving away from initial recognition through ambiguous figures. Differing from previously seen ways of showing lostness and rhythm, Mikio Sakabe wanted to create something different, weird and in grounds’ fashion, cool.
The collection explores how due to the rhythm of daily life, we become softer and more relaxed, we let go and keep on moving through repetitions. Towering figures constructed with layers of hair walked the runway, creating confusion and disorientation, making guests stare intently to try to make sense of what they were witnessing. A key element is the Manus Sole. Replacing a conventional footprint, shoes receive a handprint by molding a human sole to cradle the foot, mirroring divine hands holding the wearer, representing vulnerability, protection, grounding and ascendancy, all in one. In this collection, grounds deepened how routine and consistency affect humans in profound ways. – Felipe Castro
Check out the grounds Fall-Winter 26/27 show’s backstage with analog photography by Justine Loffredo for Pairs Project:
Backstage at grounds Fall-Winter 26/27
