Matohu presented its 2016-17 Autumn/Winter collection at Laforet Museum Roppongi on March 16th. The show began quietly as models emerged from the darkness amid a smoke-filled venue. This season's theme was "Oboro." Drawing on examples of vague and ephemeral elements familiar to Japanese people since ancient times, such as the hazy moon, mist, ink painting, and dreamlike Noh, the collection focused on the underlying Japanese aesthetic. Dressed in lightweight garments unusual for autumn and winter, including light-weight kimonos, jackets, vests, stoles, flowing, delicate pleated skirts, and loose, airy, three-quarter-length pants, the models, wearing hats pulled down over their eyes, exuded a fleeting yet mysterious atmosphere. The color palette was based on muted tones of sand, off-white, mimosa, blue-gray, and salmon pink, with playful gradations added through styling and material processing. Material processing, which was particularly experimental in this collection, presented unique ideas such as needle punching that deliberately distorted the fabric to create irregular stripes, and batik dyeing artist Yukiko Nakai, who commissioned the brush-painting of patterns using purple and blue ink from Nara's "Kobaien" ink. Designer Hiroyuki Horihata also created an original textile, which was machine-programmed to express the colors with nine weft threads. The colors blended delicately like watercolor paints, embodying the beauty of "oboro." Toward the end of the collection, the colors shifted to deeper tones such as black, deep blue, purple, and khaki, evoking a scene of morning mist transitioning into night fog. Meanwhile, in the hazy and vague atmosphere, large buttons and brooches provide occasional glimmering accents like a hazy moon. These were commissioned to be made specially for this occasion by Iwate design unit Coshell 2, and are made from lacquer, silver, and paper.

The last look shown was a striking one in a vibrant orange that evoked the morning sun rising over a night fog.