Mitsui Chemicals Serves as Material Advisor for ANREALAGE’s Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 Show

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: Tsutomu Tannowa) has teamed up with Tokyo fashion label ANREALAGE Co., Ltd. (President & Designer: Kunihiko Morinaga) for Paris Fashion Week. Mitsui Chemicals Material Oriented Laboratory (MOLp™), a cross-organizational open laboratory project by the Mitsui Chemicals Group, provided wide-ranging assistance as material advisor for ANREALAGE’s Spring/Summer 2019 show in Paris on Tuesday, September 25, 2018. The two companies also launched a set of sneaker designs produced in collaboration with the Onitsuka Tiger brand of ASICS Corp. (Tokyo: 7936; President & COO: Yasuhito Hirota).

In its ninth appearance at Paris Fashion Week, ANREALAGE presented a collection with the theme “clear.” The label has taken on the challenge of expressing the idea that “all is vanity” by transforming light-absorbing black into its opposite, clearness, so that light can pass through, enabling invisible light and invisible color to coexist.
As an initiative focused on rediscovering the emotional value of material, MOLp™ sympathized with ANREALAGE’s concept in terms of refining functional value into the user experience (UX) and new expression of plastic aging changes. The laboratory was therefore well placed to provide wide-ranging assistance as material advisor at ANREALAGE’s recent show. MOLp™ has already taken inspiration from the concept of SHIRANUI — a kind of marine will-o’-the-wisp — to launch materials that transform the photochromic technology used in ophthalmic lenses into the UX value based on appreciating variations in color. In partnership with product development specialist ARRK Corp. (Tokyo: 7873; President: Tae Ho Kim), a Mitsui Chemicals subsidiary headquartered in Osaka, MOLp™ provided support for the manufacture of everything from material to moldings as it assisted ANREALAGE in taking on new challenges in the realm of color.
Some of the items will form part of ANREALAGE’s collection for its show at Amazon Fashion Week TOKYO 2019 S/S on Friday, October 19, 2018.

Mitsui Chemicals Materials in ANREALAGE 2019 S/S Collection

(1) SunSensors™-MR™-8

Mitsui Chemicals’ photochromic lens brand.
Despite being in-mass lenses materials, they offer the fastest possible fade-back speed and longer lasting photochromic performance than coated lenses. ANREALAGE’s collection applies this material in color-changing clothing accessories such as buttons and coins.

(2) STABiO

STABiO^® is a new, world’s first urethane material developed by Mitsui Chemicals. This plant-based biomass plastic helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions throughout its life cycle. Used in automobile coatings, its quick hardening time at low temperatures helps to speed up operations and reduce energy consumption. Further, the material’s transparency and durability allow it to be used in a variety of moldings. ANREALAGE’s collection applies this plastic in shoes and in color-changing pearls and studs used to decorate clothing.

(3) Prime Polypro

A polypropylene resin manufactured and sold by Prime Polymer Co. Ltd., Prime Polypro has claimed the top market share in Japan and boasts high market shares worldwide in automotive applications such as bumpers and interior panels. For ANREALAGE’s collection, the resin was processed into film, sheets and microslit yarn for use in sequins and knitted fabric. It is also used in the concept model for the color-changing Onitsuka Tiger sneaker designs.

Collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger brand of ASICS

ANREALAGE

Designer Kunihiko Morinaga launched ANREALAGE in 2003. Its name is a combination of the words “a real,” “unreal” and “age.” Morinaga’s designs originate in discoveries of easily overlooked, subtle twists in the fabric of everyday life that create touches of unreality. Working with the mantra "God is in the details," his designs are known for their brightly colored, finely detailed patchwork, garments with creative shapes unbeholden to the human body and garments that actively incorporate technology and innovative techniques. Morinaga’s garments are shown at Paris Fashion Week and sold worldwide.

MOLp™

MOLp™ is an open laboratory project that aims to make full use of multiple senses and rediscover the emotional appeal and functional value of the materials and technologies that have been passed forward and cultivated by the Mitsui Chemicals Group over more than 100 years. MOLp™ invites you to share our innovative ideas and solutions for society moving forward.
As part of its activities seeking to communicate the appeal of materials to a wider audience, MOLp™ held its first solo exhibition, MOLp Café, in March 2018 with a focus on the theme of MIXOLOGY.