Comme Des Garçons Founder Rei Kawakubo Celebrated Her 80th Birthday. Recalling The Moments When She Broke Stereotypes In Fashion

One of the most famous and influential fashion designers today, Rei Kawakubo, celebrated her 80th birthday. On the occasion of this jubilee, here are some of the most fundamental moments of her creative career, the influence of which continues to the present day.

Rei Kawakubo is a Japanese fashion designer and representative of the so-called anti-fashion, which is mainly associated with the Comme des Garçons brand and the multi-brand retail concept store Dover Street Market. The aesthetics of her work consists of an ode to imperfection, which is enhanced by an avant-garde and punk image. We can also encounter the breaking of aesthetic standards and established ideas about beauty, gender and the body.

Her journey into the fashion industry did not follow a standard path, but rather the opposite. Originally, Kawakubo studied art and literature at the University of Tokyo, which gave her an understanding of history and traditions. She first entered the fashion industry as an employee in the advertising department of a textile company and later as a freelance stylist. Two years later, in 1967, she founded the already mentioned CDG brand, which embodied unconventionality and her rebellious side, which also covered her clients' demand for unique pieces.

Reinventing the color black

In the 80s of the last century, the color black became synonymous with Kawakubo's work, which was used so much in her collections that it formed an entire palette of shades. Although the color black did not appear for the first time in the 80s, it represented strength, intellectualism and rebellion in its presentation, which changed the perception of this color for several decades to come. In connection with this philosophy, women dressed in her black models were referred to as "crows".

Deformation of the human form

In the collections of Rei Kawakubo, we could rarely see the revelation of the human figure, for the reason that one of the most progressive approaches of her work was to break the fixed ideas about beauty. An example is her iconic 1997 collection called "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body", which consisted of a stretchy dress filled with balloon padding. This plastic effect with bumps on the surface covers the erogenous zones and thus offers the viewer a rethinking of the human body. She has stated herself that her clothes are for women who don't need to secure their happiness by looking sexy for men.

Deconstruction

Rei Kawakubo is often referred to as the mother of deconstruction in clothing, a term that began to be applied especially in the 1990s. It is primarily about revealing the manufacturing process of clothes, through incompleteness and deliberately visible seams or bends. In addition to Kawakubo, other representatives include Jódži Yamamoto and Martin Margiela.

Black sweater with holes

This piece, which she ironically called lace, went down in fashion history with its concept emphasizing nothingness and emptiness, which supports the idea of "not being limited by borders". Unlike the perception of lace in earlier times, it was nothing rare, technically the sweater was only made up of holes in the fabric to create a disturbing impression.

CDG Play x Converse

The collaboration with Converse clearly ranks among the most famous achievements of the Comme des Garçons brand. The combination of the know-how of the American shoe manufacturer and the Japanese house was united on the model of the Chuck Taylor 70 shoe, which is decorated with an iconic red heart by the designer Filip Pagowski. This shoe with a significant heart with eyes is currently perceived as one of the most widespread streetwear sneakers, where we can choose from several color and pattern designs.