Comme des Garçons
Vera Wang
April 20, 2020
Issey Miyake
April 20, 2020
Rei Kawakubo, born in 1942, is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of the Comme des Garçons brand and Dover Street Market, a high fashion company and multi-brand retailer. Although not formally trained as a fashion designer, but rather in fine arts and literature, she established her own company, Comme des Garçons, French for "like some boys", in Tokyo in 1973.
Challenging the established notions of beauty she created an uproar at her debut Paris fashion show where journalists labeled her clothes 'Hiroshima chic'. Comme des Garçons specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments. The materials were often draped around the body and featured frayed, unfinished edges along with holes and a general asymmetrical shape, primarily in black, dark grey or white.
Rei Kawakubo has been referenced and cited by other major designers for her originality and contribution to fashion and design.
