In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly famously rolls her eyes at the constant presence of flowers in spring collections. “Florals, for spring? Groundbreaking,” she tells her editors. With all due respect to Mrs. Priestley, in the case of Adeam, it did feel like an exciting feat.
This season, the New York and Tokyo-based designer Hanako Maeda set out to honor ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arranging. (In Japan ikebana, is treated with the same seriousness as painting or sculpture, explained Maeda.) In her first look, a strapless minidress pinned with an abundant array of yellow and white silk flowers, she embraced the technique literally: “The process of making this dress was actually very similar to doing actual ikebana,” she said. “When you make ikebana arrangements, you have a tray with needles— which is called kenzan in Japanese. You put the stem of the flower onto the needle and put them in place. Then you keep on adding more flowers and branches to create this flower arrangement. So this dress was created in a similar way, where I was just organically placing flowers.” (Maeda said it took her over a day to place them and three more to sew them strategically into place.)
She also explored a more conceptual interpretation. A minidress with a ball gown skirt featured an artful organza ruffle that mimicked “a cascading flower petal going down the vines,” she said. (Although the model who wore it, Maeda’s friend Yuka, offered her own interpretation: “This dress reminds me of a cappuccino foam,” she told the designer while trying it on.) A sheer button down shirt was adorned with delicate floral embroidery that appeared to bend with the body, as did a pair of flared pale blue pants. Meanwhile, Maeda made a number of looks with matelassé fabrics, stitched with an intricate sunflower pattern. Speaking of specific blooms—the designer used flowers native to Japan. A bra top featured white hydrangeas, which spring up across the country during the rainy season in June. Mimosas were accents on shoes, and blue camellias lined a skirt.
Not wanting to seem too overly sweet, Maeda smartly stuck with a muted palette: blacks, creams, whites, and navy were her go-tos, along with dusty pinks and blues. “I really like the balance between something that feels a little bit more effortless and sporty with something that feels romantic and delicate,” she said.
Examine her lookbook closely, and you’ll see that aforementioned bra top pop up in several of her looks. This was Maeda’s attempt at both practicality—see, it’s a style that can be worn in more than way!—yet also ephemerality: “Ikebana is so beautiful because it doesn’t last forever,” she said. “I wanted to reflect this philosophy in the styling of the collection. The pieces really morph with how the wearer wants to style the piece.”