PARIS, Feb 25, 2007/ FW/ --- Although the name might seem of Northern European origin. Mina Perhonen is a Japanese brand. Mian is short for Minagawa, the actual designer’s name, and Perhonen means butterfly in Finnish, a symbol used as the brand’s logo.

In many a way, Minagawa is a radically different designer who is trying to create pieces aimed at surviving the season. He also works only with local manufacturers and is resolutely not following the general trends.

The collection he proposed today consisted of fifteen looks only. Minagawa has concentrated his work for Fall 2007 on prints, which were certainly his most successful effort. Prints that looked like multicolour crochet work on an entire dress , were more cleverly used with the same pattern this time in monochrome tones on a fawn fabric which made up a nice coat.

Totally different , Minagawa’s palette was less pertinent in mixing and matching softer shades with nearly fluorescent tones in the same looks. These looks raised various opinions among fashion writers and editors: some considered it like a bad mixture that could equally have been the result of models coming from a jumble sale.

Others considered each piece individually worn with more regular wardrobe pieces. They could certainly make a clearer statement. Basically, the designer could do better using a professional to style his show, and the creations by Minagawa would deserve it.

The hats of fake lambskin and the round-tipped Middle-Ages long flat shoes added to a vague cold winter impression which could have the taiga for setting and an overall atmosphere of western Asian ethnicity not deprived of romanticism.

Nevertheless this general red-cheeked ambiance, which made someone say: “You can get out of your yurt now”, did not serve the collection well.

In this atmosphere of flea market in the middle of the taiga, one could find several gems of garments, which might well last in some wardrobe, season after season. Only the staging and styling of the show did not allow the audience to spot them immediately.

Mina Perhonen

Mina Perhonen

Mina Perhonen