The angel from my nightmare
The shadow in the background of the morgue
The unsuspecting victim
Of darkness in the valley
We can live like Jack and Sally if we want.
You read that right: Blink 182’s “Miss You” is being quoted in an Adeam review. The teenage angst anthem of the 2000s was on the soundtrack of Hanako Maeda’s fall 2023 collection. While the last few seasons saw Maeda steer Adeam down a whimsical, almost saccharine path—her cutesy lineup for spring being the climax of this idea—for fall she entered darker territory.
“This season my inspiration was music,” Maeda said backstage right before the show, “most specifically the music I was listening to in my childhood,” she added, explaining that as we’ve seen Y2K exhaustingly bleed into the runways and people’s closets, she was curious about what culture she was consuming during that time. “My childhood was a lot more punk or emo, I listened to pop-punk like Blink 182 or Green Day, so a lot of the textiles and silhouettes come from that subculture of fashion.” Other inspirations include Harajuku and the gothic face of Lolita style.
This melting pot of influences resulted in a surprisingly focused lineup. Colorful tartans were cut into tailored skirts and dresses and styled under silk blouses and sleeve sets. Lace opera gloves and pleated tulle accents captured the sweet end of Harajuku, while black leather harnessing, pleated tulle accents, and leather skirts imbued the darkness of gothic Lolita in the collection. Maeda loves modularity, and so has embedded this idea deep into Adeam’s DNA. This season she made the best use of this language in her evening offering: Many of the puff sleeves on the runway were removable, and look five, for instance, consisted of a skirt and a top. “Options are important,” she said.
For day, Maeda cut tailored coat dresses and jackets in double-faced wool and silk in what was some of her sharpest tailoring, and introduced leather separates in addition to a beautiful knit dress draped in a soft pink ribbed knit. This was the “Sally” in the collection, if you will.
The “Jack” showed up after an interlude guided by a Japanese musician known as “Samurai Guitarist.” Maeda presented her latest collection for her ICHI line, the more affordable gender-neutral collection under Adeam. This was the runway debut of the collection, and this section of the show leaned into grunge as its main reference. The decision to show both collections together allowed Maeda to push her main line to the evening space she’s been toying with of late; the presence of ICHI eased the load of having to dress down her woman to find versatility in her wardrobe proposals.
The fifteen looks added a necessary edge to the collection, and the oversized silhouettes shared across male, female, and non-binary models offered a compelling point of view on layering. It was definitely grunge with all the plaids, Doc Martens, pocket chains, and painted nails, though one almost wishes it was dirtier, messier, and slightly, well, grungier. The ripped sweater in look 39 was a great start. After all, what made grunge cool was not just the clothes, but the ease and preternatural angst of its subjects. Where Maeda did less with more and leaned into this vibe, her ICHI collection was at its strongest.
