Mame Kurogouchi Spring/Summer 2027 at Paris Fashion Week

Mame Kurogouchi Spring/Summer 2027 / SS27 at Paris Fashion Week entitled “Uniforms”

Variations within uniformity. An observation of their traces. From the memory of one to the countless personal histories of Mame Kurogouchi Spring/Summer 2027 Collection surveys the history and evolution of Japanese school uniforms, tracing the myriad expressions of individuality that emerge through a form of dress experienced by so many, and translating them into contemporary clothing.

Designer Maiko Kurogouchi draws a parallel between the act of wearing a uniform and atsushi, a practice found in the world of Japanese craft. More than mere reproduction, atsushi is the act of taking the “form” of an exemplary work from the past and carrying its essence forward through one’s own physicality. Through repetition, subtle differences in the maker the body, sensibility, and the passage of time inevitably begin to surface. A uniform, too, may be understood as a medium that paradoxically gives rise to individuality through the repeated wearing of a form imbued with powerful symbolic codes.

For Mame Kurogouchi SS27 / Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Kurogouchi turns her gaze away from the usual, almost introspective observation of her own daily life and toward the distinctive ways students make uniforms their own. Variations in trouser silhouettes across eras and regions, loosely knotted ties, obsessive attention to the stand collars of gukuran jackets or the length of a skirt countless anonymous expressions of individuality, gathered through such microscopic observations, are absorbed into the brand’s recurring vocabulary of tailoring, silhouettes shaped by soft curves, and embroideries of flowers and plants. Emblematic codes of the school uniform blazers, stand-collar jackets, sailor collars, checks, and pleats-meet meticulous patternmaking and soft, sheer materials, transforming into a contemporary wardrobe. Oversized proportions intersect with cropped silhouettes; transition of stripes into checks on the fabrics, blazer and skirt dissolve into one another to form a single dress. Multiple checks mingle and undulate through shiberi hand-twisting techniques, while sailor collars migrate freely across MA-1 jackets, blouses, dresses, and knitwears. Within a restrained palette centred on black, navy, and white, original brooches and embroideries reminiscent of school emblems, together with colourful socks, introduce a playful note characteristic of youth.

The nostalgia attached to the uniform a garment bound to a finite period of one’s life is redefined through two collaborations as active accessories for the contemporary women. The collection introduces the brand’s first sneaker, created in collaboration with Japanese footwear brand MOONSTAR. Inspired by the wwabaki, the indoor shoes familiar from Japanese schools, the minimal slip-on brings together the organic lines integral to Mame Kurogouchi’s identity and MOONSTAR’s time-honed craftsmanship, rooted in the making of tale and cultivated for more than 150 years. The collaboration with Japanese leather brand TSUCHIYA KABAN is renewed and introduces three new styles: a canvas school bag, a leather bag adorned with a flower charm, and a leather bucket bag.

About the show music, The music for the SS27 runway show is created by Japanese composer and musician Koshiro Hino. Unfolding through the passage of time in a school from morning to evening, contrasting elements freedom and tension, learning and play -meet, separate, and intersect like warp and weft, gradually weaving themselves into a single composition.