The brand’s namesake, designer Mitsuru Okazaki, finds inspiration in an eclectic and ever-evolving roster of interests, ranging from maverick painter Neo Rauch to rockstars, circuses, and even peace. As a result, MITSURU OKAZAKI can be an elusive brand to pin down, each season presenting a different impression. Yet perhaps this impulsive fluidity is what makes Okazaki’s designs so viscerally compelling. In this case, consistency is secondary to emotional impact.

This season, Okazaki surprised with an exploration of dreams, or to quote the collection notes, a liminal state of “Existing in reality, yet living in a dream.” Whimsical motifs abounded with little girls, rabbits, and peculiar plump creatures plucked from the pages of Alice in Wonderland. Referencing the surreal world of Lewis Carroll, Okazaki’s designs deftly visually blurred the boundary between fiction and reality. For example, one memorable look consisted of a pink knit with an illustration of Alice superimposed over the letters “Alice,” styled with ethereal sheer green bottoms and knee-high tennis socks. Another vivid orange knit featured abstract blue and yellow forms, evoking the side profile of the Mad Hatter.

Okazaki expressed the non sequitur incongruity and limitless possibility of dreams with an absurdist flair that extended to the show’s staging, itself. To wit, the show opened with a figure cloaked in an all-black ensemble and a brimmed hat. No sooner had he stepped onto the catwalk than he took a seat and proceeded to doze off amidst the crowd. As the last model passed, the mysterious man stood up and rejoined the retinue—his slow, buoyant gait accompanied by atmospheric birdsong beckoning the audience on a journey back through the looking glass.