When you think that every design idea has been exhausted in fashion, Rei Kawakubo comes along and throws up something totally fresh and exciting. “The future is two-dimensions”...
When you think that every design idea has been exhausted in fashion, Rei Kawakubo comes along and offers up something totally fresh and exciting. “The future is two-dimensions” explained the influential designer on Comme des Garçons’ A/W12 collection of flat-plane and oversized garments.
Was Kawakubo making a comment on how the majority of us view fashion now: through the two-dimensions of print or digital screens? Or the fact that models are our idealised and often unrealistic view of perfection – living dolls – in her garments that came in exaggerated paper-doll shapes (sans tabs)? Whatever the reasons behind her design decisions, Kawakubo’s creations were entirely original.
"Whatever the reasons behind her design decisions, Kawakubo’s creations were entirely original"
Renowned for using nearly all black throughout her collections, last season’s solid white and now A/W12’s vividly coloured and stylised prints suggests that a definite change is in the air. “Make it new,” Kawakubo proclaimed backstage. With this in mind, Kawakubo also brought her models down the catwalk to silence before introducing electronica for her final eveningwear looks.
If one thing is for sure: Rei Kawakubo definitely knows how to put on one hell-of-a-performance, proving that fashion doesn’t have to take itself so seriously.
Text by Lucia Davies
