Anrealage used UV lights and color-changing technology to unveil their designs at Paris Fashion Week

Kunihiko Morinaga first used fabric with light-dependent color-changing photochromic properties a decade ago and has since returned to the technology several times, most recently in collaboration with Fendi. We saw it again this evening at the Théâtre de la Madeleine, and it was a pleasure: this is an Anrealage coup de théâtre that never gets old. Morinaga said this was the first time he had integrated the technology into faux fur, velvet, lace, knits, jacquards, and satins, and that he had never before been able to create shifting shades of colors like yellow, red, and purple.Models appeared on stage in adjacent but not identical garments that were often cut symmetrically to look the same from the front as the back or to have what the back would look like in front. To the slow build of Ravel's "Boléro," two UV-emitting tubes were lowered in front of the models. The color of the garments changed from (mostly) white to vivid tones and patterns, including an Anrealage monogram and polka dots, as the light passed in front of them. The models were then zhuzhed again after turning 180 degrees. Morinaga claims that clothes react to UV in sunlight, and that the reaction is specific to the weather conditions to which they are exposed.