Held at the Hotel Saint-James & Albany last Sunday, the catwalk show started quietly, as in, there was no music. If it was by accident or by design, the audience never noticed because they were immediately captivated by the collection being shown on the runway.

Tiny black ruffles or tiny buttons that look like sequins adorned the placket, detachable collars that are held in place by buttons and cracker jack trousers with tiny buttons, everything had an a shimmer.

These tiny buttons lined the inside of the evening jacket and embellished a white shirt. But the glitter did not hurt the eye. There was no glare at all, courtesy of a special oxidizing process that these silver buttons went through.

As Masatomo explained in his press notes, ‘The evocation of simplicity and beauty characterizes the spirit of this collection by using silver buttons representing the Sun. Slowly oxidizing as time passes, the silver buttons evokes the universe of Wabisabi, the Japanese concept which describes the beauty of the imperfect, impermanent and incomplete things.’

Well, Wabisabi might be the philosophy of imperfect beauty, but the collection itself neared perfection with the very functional and noticeable buttons that adorned every piece of garment shown.

And to emphasize the ‘imperfection’ part of the collars of the jackets, short jackets, coats and shirts were left unwoven, frayed and cut on the edges. And though it fits nicely into the ‘imperfect beauty’ philosophy, again, according to Masatomo’s press notes, these unfinished edges were created ‘in order to evoke the image of the wings of the Fire Bird.’

About the time that the audience was getting used to the idea of imperfect beauty and around halfway of the show, the sound of a Japanese guitar was heard on the background. Poignant and beautiful, each solo note was emphasized by the very slow tempo of the music.

This was not lost on the audience, as everyone eagerly awaited the next look that will come out. In this section, Masamoto became more experimental, using iridescent denim for jeans and python skin for a suit jacket.

There was also a burst of color from purple to orange then pink. The trench coat had an unfinished edge on the lapel and Cracker Jack trousers featured double pockets.

It was minimalist drama, the anticipation heightened by the lack of music in the beginning and then sparingly using it until the end.

Perhaps, Masatomo’s other ‘job’, i.e., director and filmmaker oozed through with his fashion design prowess. After all, he was and still in the middle of filming the movie ‘Black Legend,’ when he was making the collection and presenting it to press and buyers.