Abstraction is always the aim of the game for Rei Kawakubo. This time around, she delivered her vision in eleven distinct groups – each accompanied by individual tracks selected by Sound Artist Calx Vive which stopped abruptly after each section before kicking in again. The first batch stepped out in towering wigs that swirled into cone-like structures made from hair extensions or material fused into floral emblems. Structural dresses with extreme necklines and extended padded sleeves came with extra-full skirts decorated with tubular fringing or circular motifs that interlocked in places.

The next assortment wore asymmetric black padded dresses decorated with swatches of white fabric left unfinished at the hem. One model wore a two-piece top and skirt set that looked like a concertinaed duvet – their figure ensconced in panelled cotton and delicately pleated tulle. Uncharacteristic of Kawakubo, who often opts for a black-and-white palette, multicoloured headdresses made from pipe cleaners gave the impression of hair stuck in motion, and robust rectangular silhouettes in fuchsia and crimson were covered in 3D floral motifs, like a sartorial bed of roses. Elsewhere, 18th-century figures entered Kawakubo’s vision. Abstract versions of classical wigs were nestled atop models’ heads, as they again wore rectangular pieces but finished with oversized Peter Pan collars instead.

Kawakubo’s menswear offering was rife with fur inserts: here, cream fur was intermixed amongst layers of folded fabric, stitched together to create sleeveless dresses. Most notable was the finale look – a sapphire crushed velvet dress that ballooned outwards from the waist and featured piping that snaked around the body to construct a layered frame. Unconventional but still cohesive, Kawakubo again exhibited her tendency to radically break away from the mould to reconfigure something unexpected.