Rei Kawakubo
 | |
| Born | 1942[1] |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Tokyo, Japan[2] |
| Nationality | Japanese[1] |
| Occupation | Fashion designer[1] |
| Known for | Comme des Garçons and unconventional fashion design[1][2] |
Rei Kawakubo (born 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer, the founder and creative director of the fashion label Comme des Garçons.[1] Her designs are associated with unconventional silhouettes and a sustained emphasis on newness and experimentation.[2] Her work has influenced other designers and the wider fashion industry.[1]
Life and career
Kawakubo was born in Tokyo in 1942, the oldest of three children. She studied art and literature at Keio University and did not receive formal training as a fashion designer. She worked at a textile factory before becoming a freelance stylist in 1967.[1][2]
In 1969, Kawakubo began making clothes under the label Comme des Garçons, a French phrase meaning "Like Some Boys". She incorporated the label in 1973, opened a Tokyo boutique in 1975 and added a menswear line in 1978. The label made its Paris debut in 1981; by then, followers of Kawakubo's work had been nicknamed "the crows" in the Japanese press.[1][2]
Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe established the retail concept Dover Street Market in 2004.[1] In May 2019, she received the Isamu Noguchi Award; the profile described her as the first fashion designer to receive the prize.[1]
Design and influence
Comme des Garçons womenswear has favored mobility over conventional sex appeal. Its early silhouettes were described as voluminous and punctured with holes, separating them from the power-dressing styles prominent at the time. The fashion press controversially described the style associated with Kawakubo's Paris debut as "Hiroshima chic".[2]
Comme des Garçons runway presentations have been characterized as closer to performance art than to traditional fashion shows. The presentations typically last about twelve minutes, and each collection is developed in pursuit of something new, even when the result does not conform to conventional ideas of beauty.[2]
The 2017 exhibition Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute presented 150 Comme des Garçons ensembles spanning more than 36 years. The exhibition organized Kawakubo's work around nine forms of "in-betweenness", including Fashion/Antifashion, High/Low and Clothes/Not Clothes.[2] Kawakubo has resisted identifying herself as an artist and has instead described herself as a "businesswoman".[2]