CFCL AW25

All I could think about when descending level upon level of stairs was that it was going to take forever to get out of there after the show. CFCL was my first show at Paris Fashion Week AW25. Located at the iconic Les Halles, it was the perfect beginning to my PFW adventures and it set the stage for CFCL’s Knit-ware manifesto, a 10th-anniversary collection that was fused with Tim Ingold’s Lines; A Brief History with the mechanical heartbeat of computer-programmed knitwear. As sound artist Miyu Hosoi transformed knitting machine rhythms into a runway symphony, designer Yusuke Takahashi mapped a sartorial odyssey where loops of recycled polyester became freehand strokes.

The VOL.10 collection treated knitwear as a three-dimensional sketchbook. Milan-ribbed blousons in crimson outlines echoed 80s industrial design, while royal blue arcs traced CFCL’s evolution as a "line". Pixel-perfect zigzags in wool and polyester aligned with seamless darts, proving geometry can hug the body. Reverse-folded pleats with red convex edges breathed like kinetic sculptures, a feat only possible through programmed knitting.

Takahashi’s restraint shone in the monochrome base, punctuated by primary color interruptions. An iconic dress flared like a trigonometric function in hot pink, while metallic tube dresses in black monofilament turned minimalism into high-tech origami. Hosoi’s composition wasn’t just accompaniment, it was the literal voice of CFCL’s process. By sampling factory sounds, she knitted an auditory parallel to the garments’ algorithmic DNA. The result? A collection where every stitch hummed with intentionality.

For me, this show was a masterclass in marrying heritage (hand-knitting’s ancient roots) with hyper-modernity (code-generated textures). CFCL doesn’t just design clothes, it engineers wearable equations.