Next type of human at Grounds F/W 2025
At Paris Fashion Week, Mikio Sakabe presents “Uncanny Valley,” an expansion of his footwear universe into garments
© Grounds
Amongst the uncountable events, shows, and presentations during Paris Fashion Week, there's always space to discover new proposals from interesting projects from all around the world, and Japanese designers tend to be one of the crowd's and critics' favourites when it comes to finding gems. Grounds is one of these brands, with a concept that steps into a surreal realm for its Fall/Winter 25-26 collection, blending futuristic design with an unsettling sense of the unfamiliar. Renowned for its gravity-defying footwear and with iconic collaborations on their back with names like Walter Van Beirendonck or Bernhard Willhelm, the brand has now broadened its focus to include a full wardrobe—one that distorts expectations with unconventional shapes and fluid contrasts.
Presented in an abandoned Paris garage, a couple of levels underground and with a raw interior that makes everything look more stylish and avant-garde but also dark and eerie, the collection's showcase mirrored this unsettling aesthetic. The raw industrial setting, with exposed concrete and flickering lights, amplified the collection's uncanny yet captivating energy in front of an audience that seemed to embody perfectly the spirit of the brand. Styled by Betsy Johnson, the looks combined exaggerated proportions with casual draping, embracing a deliberate tension between structure and softness.
The collection explores ideas of duality—where elegance meets distortion. Sleek, futuristic silhouettes were softened with relaxed, slouchy elements, while traditional fabrics were reimagined through unconventional tailoring. Textures, from synthetic coatings to distressed knits, added further layers to this exploration. Accessories played with perception: shoes resembled hands, while familiar textiles were twisted into unexpected forms, creating a visual language that felt chaotic but controlled. As every look appeared on the runway, the once black floor started to become white with every step the models took, leaving the imprint of the shoe that just walked on top of it, a nice metaphor that reflects the impact and the footprint that Grounds is starting to leave in the industry.
Our attention was quickly shifting, looking up and down constantly. The garments, the proportions, and the silhouettes were interesting, but what was going on with the shoes remains definitely the collection's strongest point. With a proposal that seems to have no boundaries about how big, how tall, or how chunky their shoes can be, the soles became bubblier than ever, and the limits were pushed to the max. What they do with these fundamental pieces of every wardrobe is not only unique, but it seems to resonate with the consumer and adapt to them. You just had to look at what shoes the front rowers were wearing to notice how, first, it was all Grounds sneakers, and second, despite being the same brand, it all adapted perfectly to the personal character of the wearer.
Designer Mikio Sakabe, known for his avant-garde vision shaped by his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, continues to fuse Japanese subcultural references with futuristic ideals. As originally a garments designer who turned his focus into footwear, returning to his origins of clothing creation is not hard but rather an intuitive process, as he himself tells us after the show. Aside from the addition of full looks that expand the universe of the shoes, their new venture into eyewear feels increasingly immersive—an evolving universe built from scratch, always anchored in the relationship between the body and the ground beneath it.
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