Rei Kawakubo

Karl Lagerfeld’s last Chanel show was understandably one of the most important events of the season. The fashion world bid adieux to the master of fashion theatre in the famous Grand Palais. The space was made to look like the set of a rom-com taking place in a snowed in Tyrolean village, not a nostalgic farewell for somebody who once said” I hate fake sentimentality”.

Marc Jacobs’ RTW F/W 2019 collection was described as a “dialog between intimacy and distance”. Characterized by a restrained elegance, the show blurred the lines between couture and RTW. Critics called it “dramatic, lyrical” and a return to glory for the label.

Rei Kawakubo’s latest creation for Comme des Garcons was dark as usual, and not just because the designer has a preference for the colour black. The high concept, perfectly executed show gave critics plenty to think about but let everyone draw their own conclusions to what its meaning was.

The Costume Institute’s Spring 2017 exhibition examines the work of fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. The thematic show features approximately 140 examples of Kawakubo’s womenswear for Comme des Garçons dating from the early 1980s to her most recent collection, many with heads and wigs created and styled by Julien d’Ys.

The galleries illustrate the designer’s revolutionary experiments in “in-betweenness”—the space between boundaries. Objects are organized into nine aesthetic expressions of interstitiality in Kawakubo’s work: Absence/Presence, Design/Not Design, Fashion/Anti-Fashion, Model/Multiple, Then/Now, High/Low, Self/Other, Object/Subject, and Clothes/Not Clothes. Kawakubo breaks down the imaginary walls between these dualisms, exposing their artificiality and arbitrariness.

WHEN: May 4 – September 4, 2017

WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

ADMISSION: $25. Buy tickets at https://rsecure.metmuseum.org/admissions