Eight of the Best Comme des Garçons Moments in AnOther Magazine

The new 20th-anniversary issue of AnOther is a love letter to our favourite fashion visionaries – and over the last two decades, one of our most enduring romances has been with Rei Kawakubo. The Japanese designer’s pioneering label, Comme Des Garçons, has established her as the mother of fashion disruptors, with her courageous creations shocking (and stunning) the industry for the last half a century. And so, to celebrate both our birthday and the launch of the magazine at Dover Street Market, we look back on some of our best-loved editorial collaborations with Comme Des Garçons.

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2021: New Love, Old Flames (lead image)

Comme’s transportive, enchanting Spring/Summer 2021 collection takes centre stage for our latest issue, with a cover shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo. Inside, Kawakubo also speaks candidly to AnOther’s editor-in-chief Susannah Frankel about “dissonance”, digital media and her lockdown experiences.

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2019

In 2019, model Anok Yai fronted AnOther clad in Comme’s fringed thermoplastic tassels. The majestic image, captured by Craig McDean and styled by Katie Shillingford, was combined with an intimate email conversation with Kawakubo, who expanded on her desire to make “strong” clothes that “stimulate the heart”.

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2018: Powerful Visions, Touching Moments, Modern Taste

Our Spring/Summer 2018 cover, shot by Zoe Ghertner and styled by Jane How, was a celebration of Comme’s more opulent designs. The featured polyester dress was printed with a classic 16th-century oil painting – Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo – transporting viewers to lavish, fruit-and-flora-filled fantasy world.  

Another Man Spring/Summer 2018: Psychodrama

This ethereal editorial from 2018 blended blurred, daguerreotype aesthetics with sharp splashes of modernity. Photographed by Paolo Roversi and styled by Katy England, the resulting editorial shoot – and cover – was a mind-bending trip of stoic portraiture, sequins, mutilated dolls, and hot pink nylon.

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2017: Heroic

Kawakubo was the perfect match for our “Heroic” 2017 issue theme. The cover, shot by Craig McDean, shows model Raquel Zimmermann in one of the designer’s most daring, avant-garde creations: an enormous black dress, covered in hearts, with inflated, asymmetric structuring. 

AnOther Magazine Autumn/Winter 2016

In 2016, Kawakubo shared her characteristically defiant, millennia-spanning new collection in a Nick Knight-shot photo series and interview. “I was thinking that there had to be women in the 18th century who wanted to live strongly,” the designer told Susannah Frankel at the time, “so I designed what I imagined this type of woman would have worn and called it ‘18th-Century Punk’.” 

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2014: Mia Wasikowska

Crimson Peak star Mia Wasikowska – at the time just 24, and newly catapulted into the heights of Hollywood – fronted our Spring/Summer 2014 issue. Captured by Craig McDean and styled by Olivier Rizzo, the actress modelled Comme Des Garçons’ latest season with typically off-kilter cool.

AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2010

Over a decade ago, we spoke to Kawakubo’s friends and creative collaborators to investigate the designer’s inimitable appeal. The result was an outpouring of adulation, with names like Alexander McQueen, Björk and Nick Knight sharing their tributes (followed by a written response from Kawakubo herself). “Rei doesn’t compromise, nor should she,” said McQueen at the time. “No one should compromise. Compromise makes people dull.”

The Comme des Garçons cover of AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2021, featuring Rianne Van Rompaey photography by Willy Vanderperre and Olivier Rizzo is available in-store and online at Dover Street Market.