In a space suspended between the visible and the unseen, Kunihiko Morinaga once again proved why ANREALAGE remains one of the most inquisitive and conceptually daring voices in contemporary fashion.
His Spring/Summer 2026 collection, titled “♥”, emerged from a single essential question: how does life appear when viewed through another body, another sensitivity, another world?
A Thinking Heart
The heart symbol here is not a romantic cliché, but a living metaphor. In Morinaga’s world, the “♥” beats as a vital force that powers creativity and diversity.
The collection was born from a collaboration with HERALBONY, the Japanese creative company that represents more than 250 artists with intellectual disabilities, redefining the relationship between art, inclusion and fashion.
Eighteen of these artists contributed original artworks to the collection, transforming each garment into a window onto infinite inner universes.
The prints were produced using FOREARTH, KYOCERA’s sustainable textile printer, which reduces water usage to near zero.
On fabrics that retain their natural softness, the artworks expand like graphic heartbeats—emotional landscapes, breathing lines, colours that seem to listen.
When Clothes Have a Pulse
True to ANREALAGE’s experimental DNA, the silhouettes pulsed between the organic and the technological.
Dresses inflated like expanding hearts, skirts with wired flounces undulated to an imagined rhythm, and capes seemed to inhale and exhale with life.
The collection explored the idea that clothing can contain vitality—that to dress is to connect biologically with one’s own existence.
Among the most striking accessories were cat-shaped handbags developed with robotics start-up Yukai Engineering Inc., inspired by their therapeutic product Qoobo.
The bags’ softly swaying tails brought a sense of comfort and companionship to the futuristic mise-en-scène.
A Sound That Reminds Us We Exist
Sound, always a vital element in ANREALAGE’s presentations, played a central role once again.
Following his previous collaboration with Thomas Bangalter, Morinaga worked with HERALBONY to craft a soundtrack blending human heartbeat rhythms with everyday sounds recorded by people with disabilities.
The result was an organic symphony that countered the rise of artificial intelligence with the raw texture of human life.
Crossing the Boundary
In his statement preceding the show, Morinaga described feeling “a sacred, unseen presence” when meeting the HERALBONY artists. To him, their works were not simply art but the crystallisation of life itself.
From that encounter emerged the guiding question of the collection: why, while standing in the same place, do we see different landscapes?
The show closed with a reflection that resonated throughout the Palais de Tokyo:
“I want clothing to hold life. I want to wear the formless heartbeat.”
Between technique and transcendence, ANREALAGE SS 2026 “♥” reaffirmed that fashion can be a living organism—an experiment in empathy, perception and shared humanity.
Each garment became a beating heart, reminding us that to feel is, quite literally, to exist.
