Comme Des Garçons
 | |
| Type | Fashion brand |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1969[1] |
| Founder | Rei Kawakubo[2][1] |
| Products | Clothing, fragrances, and accessories[2] |
Comme des Garçons is a Japanese fashion brand founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969. Its name is a French phrase glossed as "like the boys". The brand is associated with avant-garde and conceptual fashion and has developed multiple lines under the broader label.[2][1]
History
Kawakubo began manufacturing and selling womenswear under the Comme des Garçons name in 1969, and established the company Comme des Garçons Co., Ltd. in 1973. In 1975, the brand appeared at Tokyo Fashion Week and opened its first direct store in Aoyama, Tokyo. It presented its first Paris runway in 1981.[1]
The 1981 Paris presentation, held alongside Yohji Yamamoto's, challenged the glamorous and polished style then dominant in the Paris fashion industry. The collection used substantial amounts of black and left frayed edges and holes visible, an approach described as deconstructive. The response included the label "Hiroshima chic" in European fashion commentary and the emergence in Japan of "karasu-zoku" for people dressed in all-black fashion.[1]
Lines and collections
The brand expanded through separately identified lines. Selected introductions include Comme des Garçons Homme (1978), Comme des Garçons Homme Plus (1984), Comme des Garçons Homme Deux (1987), Comme des Garçons SHIRT (1988), Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons (1992), Comme des Garçons, Comme des Garçons (1993), Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons Man (2001), PLAY Comme des Garçons (2002), BLACK Comme des Garçons (2008), Comme des Garçons Girl (2015), and CDG (2018).[1]
Retail and collaborations
Comme des Garçons and Comme des Garçons Homme Plus present collections at Paris Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week Men's. Its retail presence includes a flagship store in Aoyama and Dover Street Market locations in London, New York, Singapore, Ginza, and Beijing.[2]
The brand's other creative ventures include collaborations with H&M, Supreme, Levi's, and Louis Vuitton, as well as fragrances and accessories. Exhibitions presenting its archive have been held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1986, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, in 2005, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2017.[2]