Ensemble

Rei Kawakubo|Comme des Garçons

fall/winter 2015–16 · polyester, nylon, plastic (polyvinyl chloride), silk, rayon, metal · Costume Institute

Since founding Comme des Garçons ("like some boys") in 1969, the Tokyo-based designer Rei Kawakubo has consistently defined and redefined the aesthetics of our time. Season after season, collection after collection, she upends conventional notions of beauty and disrupts accepted characteristics of the fashionable body. While Kawakubo has been described as an "intellectual" designer, she insists that her work deals with her instincts and emotions. Her collections contain deeply personal and self-reflective narratives imbued with profound spirituality. The fashions in her autumn/winter 2015 collection "Ceremony of Separation" can be interpreted as expressions of mourning dress and represent a meditation of the fragility of life and the finality of death. The tiered silhouette of this example rendered in gold lace and white net recalls both religious vestments and architecture.

Artist

Rei Kawakubo|Comme des Garçons

Date

fall/winter 2015–16

Medium

polyester, nylon, plastic (polyvinyl chloride), silk, rayon, metal

Culture

Japanese

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Funds from various donors, by exchange, 2015