Talks
REI KAWAKUBO & THE BIRTH OF COMME DES GARCONS
Fashion’s most revered innovator, the founder, and Creative Director of Comme des Garcons is celebrating her 79th birthday. Rei Kawakubo has succeeded to build a cult around her avant-garde fashion abstracted in the philosophy of raw, virginal creation. The Japanese designer founded the house of Comme des Garcons in 1969 and debuted in Paris in 1981 after establishing her position and popularity in the local market. She shook up the worldwide fashion scene through her asymmetrical, distressed, monochromatic garments with exaggerated volumetry, challenging the status quo as one of the most unconventional designers to have ever existed. She famously expressed in an interview that her intention was not to “start a revolution”, but only to show “what I thought was strong and beautiful. It just so happened that my notion was different from everybody else’s.” Her path of commercial and creative individualism is also rooted in her literature and art educational background which has paved her unaltered trajectory toward becoming an icon of contemporaneity. Besides inspiring names such as Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, and Helmut Lang, Rei has also launched the careers of Junya Watanabe and Kei Ninomiya, including their lines under the now extensive umbrella of Comme des Garcons. Today, the fashion house is branched into 20 distinctive lines and is worth a riveting $220 million per year. Together with her husband, she has also founded the infamously “cult retail destination”, Dover Street Market. Her work has been awarded in 2019 when she made history as the first fashion designer to receive the Isamu Noguchi Award, a distinction acknowledging artists bridging Eastern and Western cultures through their innovations.
Photo credits: Styledumonde.com
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