grounds takes us somewhere unfamiliar for SS27. Mikio Sakabe imagines a world of strange shapes, futuristic materials and gravity-defying shoes, where fashion feels a little like discovering another planet.
At Paris Fashion Week, grounds Spring/Summer 2027 collection offered an invitation into the unknown. Led by designer Mikio Sakabe, the collection asked what we might wear if we were suddenly transported somewhere beyond our understanding, whether to a distant past, an unseen future or a community that exists outside the records of our world. That sense of unfamiliarity has long been central to grounds, a brand that approaches fashion from the feet upwards, transforming the relationship between the body and the ground through sculptural, gravity-defying footwear. For Spring Summer 2027, organic forms, futuristic materials and mechanical references created a world that felt both otherworldly and strangely familiar, continuing Sakabe’s exploration of where fashion, technology and art can meet.
Stylist Ai Kamoshita shaped the collection’s visual language, while hair by Hide Saiga of TONI&GUY and makeup by Ikuko Ikuko of Shiseido completed the characters inhabiting this unfamiliar world. Yet there was another way of experiencing the collection beyond the runway itself. For this Vein exclusive, photographer Rita Castel-Branco takes us backstage set at the American Church of Paris, capturing an intimate glimpse into the making of Sakabe’s latest vision, bringing us closer to the people, textures and strange beauty that exist behind the finished collection.
Photography by Rita Castel-Branco for VEIN MAGAZINE
