Mame Kurogouchi spring/summer 2027: school-uniform white socks and orange knee-highs, look by look
For spring/summer 2027 Maiko Kurogouchi looks at how students personalise their uniforms: white socks with black shoes, orange and white knee-highs with brogues, in 8 of 38 looks.
Maiko Kurogouchi showed the spring/summer 2027 Mame Kurogouchi collection at Paris Fashion Week. In the gallery WWD published with images courtesy of the brand, we count 38 looks, and in 8 of them the legs wear socks or knee-highs: almost always white, orange once, always with dark, flat shoes. It is the school-uniform sock, and that is exactly where the collection starts. We went through the looks one by one, in the order they walked.
The collection: the detail in the uniform
According to Lily Templeton in WWD, the designer looked at how wearing the same uniform every day leads people to express identity through a detail, "a loosened tie, a changed hem or a collar worn just so". WWD describes a "gakuran" school jacket turned into a fluid ankle-length coatdress, sailor collars on MA-1 jackets, dresses and knitwear, a jacquard pinstripe fading into a check, and a collegiate sweater in a lightweight yarn with a translucent zigzag. All of it, Templeton writes, on a base of feminine tailoring: fluid dresses, fitted jackets, lean trousers.
In that logic the sock is the uniform detail par excellence. WWD does not mention it: what follows comes from the photos.
Knee-highs with brogues: looks 26 and 29
The two clearest looks are the ones with knee-highs and navy brogues. In look 26 the knee-high is orange and ribbed, under a navy jacket dress with a pleated hem: the only bright colour on the legs in the whole show. In look 29, the photo at the top, it is white openwork, under a grey check jacket dress with the same pleats at the hem.
Looks 26 and 29: the uniform knee-high, in orange and in white. Photo: courtesy of Mame Kurogouchi, via WWD.
White socks with black shoes: looks 7 and 12
In the other looks the sock is white and stops at mid-calf or lower, with black shoes. In look 7 it is a textured white sock, under the long navy coatdress WWD links to the "gakuran" jacket, with black lace-ups. In look 12 it is a white sock with black suede slip-ons, under a long black eyelet skirt and a cropped top.
Looks 7 and 12: the white sock under a long hem. Photo: courtesy of Mame Kurogouchi, via WWD.
The same pairing opens the show: in look 1 the white sock peeks out under a long black coat, with black lace-ups; in look 25 under a long blue check dress with a black tie, with black loafers. It returns in looks 6 and 36, under a black coat and wide black trousers.
Looks 1 and 25: the white sock from the opening look. Photo: courtesy of Mame Kurogouchi, via WWD.
The other looks are bare-legged or in long trousers. In looks 13 and 31 something shows at the ankle, white in one and black in the other, but from the photo we cannot tell sock from shoe: we did not count them.
How to read these legs now
No source gives the yarn or the denier. Three practical points:
- A white sock with a black shoe. It is the uniform pairing, and at Mame Kurogouchi it works even under a long coat or an evening dress: white at the ankle lightens the black.
- Knee-highs with a pleated mini. Orange or white, the knee-high leaves the knee bare under a short pleated hem; with a brogue it becomes daywear. For more knee socks, see Kiko Kostadinov and Anteprima.
- One colour, on the legs. The orange knee-high of look 26 is the only bright touch on a navy dress: if the sock is coloured, the rest can stay dark.
For more of the season, read our Paris Fashion Week report and the look-by-looks of Noir Kei Ninomiya, Alainpaul and Celine.
The photos
The numbering follows the WWD gallery of Mame Kurogouchi spring/summer 2027, 38 images credited as courtesy of the brand. The photos in this article are from that gallery, with credit, and the look numbers are the gallery's. The count of 8 (6 with white socks, 2 with knee-highs) is ours, from the photos.
