'We studied the movements of these champions to create a new frame of suit,' Dai Fujiwara, artistic director at the Japanese label, told The Associated Press. 'If it is good enough for them, it has got to be good enough for the businessmen.' The secret behind the suits' suppleness lies in the fabric - polyester infused with stretch - a complex web of folds and built-in accordion pleats that run up and down suit like stripes.

Other garments at Friday's show that lived up to the label's reputation for ingeniousness included dresses, shirts and jackets that enveloped the models' bodies like petals, trembling daintily as they walked.

On the hanger, the garments looked like rectangles of uncut cloth with small vertical slits - armholes - in the middle. As with many of the label's clothes, slipping into the shimmering, multilayered garments required a bit of training.

Puffy vests in slick red and black pleated polyester looked like shells of poisonous beetles. They can also be worn upside-down for a completely different effect.

Wide leg, high-water pants were cut in the shape of a scimitar and evoked the sail of an Arabic dhow.

The models carried handbags in serious shades of black and taupe that they swung to reveal underbellies of shocking pink or fluorescent green. Down-filled scarves like mini comforters were light as air.

'I want to find the mixture point between design, fashion, art and economics,' Fujiwara said, as he sketched a Venn diagram with circles representing the different fields. 'This is where I want to be,' he said, filling in the tiny slice where the circles overlapped. -- AP