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Tag "Rei Kawakubo"

For several years now Rei Kawakubo, in Comme des Garçons art, has exclusively dedicated to clues, atmospheres and evocation her own representation of the ongoing collection. Emancipated of any kind of obligation towards the expectations of the global audience, the Japanese designer delights with her exhibitions that are closer to the art world rather than the sector of belonging.  The runway is not dedicated to garments but to textile provocations, architectonic structures that surround the sacrificed bodies of models lend to carry oversized sculptures, deliberately cumbersome and disproportionate compared to the available space.

Impossible not to ask yourself why or what is the plausible message content in this artistic drift. Maybe a self-granted freedom of expression, against the monotonous limits forced by the reality of the female body, or a subtle provocation versus a star-system hat becomes increasingly uncritical and exhibitionist. Certainly the dialog has not the purpose of selling. The pared garments are indeed extraordinary pieces of contemporary art that belong in museums or wealthy collectors. The runway show is an idea, a suggestion of the inspiring motif of the season which will be found later translated and much wearable in the development in the show-room. For Autumn/Winter 2016-2017 we witness then poetic collage of antique fabrics, floral tapestries that catapult the public in the XVIII century, the Age of Enlightenment, the rematch of reason over ignorance and superstition.

Rei Kawakubo, however, is not nostalgic and well-mannered, the collage is held together by metal snap buttons, by cuts and raw seams, diagonals that fragment the decorative harmony of time, implying elements defined by herself  as Punk, in the most provocative meaning of the term.

Synthetic leather, studs, constant asymmetries  and details that can be observed in the motives sewed on skirts, in the curvatures of the nodal points of the joints, reinforced as if they were textile armatures. And extensions, adjustable connecting rings, a flexibility in disassembling and reassembling, a continuously adjustable area in lengths and a delicate balance between order and disorder. It is not said that we can return to the original reconstruction, that many the alternatives are. Modernity and tradition, they also alternate in the processing, the ancient Japanese knowing collaborates with the most daring experimentations of the multi-layerd polyester cloth with rayon, cupro and cotton panels, in an encounter that observes how the material determinants and imposes the final shape of the piece, whether is a jacket, skirt or coat.

Needless to assume how Rei Kawakubo, in preparing an original and personal temporal syncretism, punk and Enlightenment, thinks of women determined to stay in their own time with the vigor and exuberance of who has a critical and imaginative independency

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Dazed, Junya, Watanabe, SS16

Junya Watanabe Spring/Summer 2016 runway details, Dazed & Confused dazeddigital.com.

(Dress and necklace coming soon.)

We always brought to light the Junya Watanabe’s peculiar interpretative ability in establishing, in the form of dress, the predominant stresses of our time. Post-modern, cyber-punk, tailor-philosopher of an age crossed by very fast transformations, where, from collection to collection, plastics and brand new materials, parts of abandoned industrial landscapes, occurred, to give shape to his personal metabolization and to his interpretation of the contemporaneity.

For the Spring/Summer 2016 the Rei Kawakubo-Comme des Garçons’ favourite, still produced by the Japanese Maison, welcomed his public in an emblematic space of pressing social themes, the Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration of Paris.

Junya, Watanabe, Musèe, de, l'Immigration, SS2016

Il Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration of Paris on the cover of Junya Watanabe S/S 2016 lookbook.

An important clue, a sensitive container of the present restrictive instincts of a continent in a state of alert for the imposing migratory phenomenon of which is witness. A suggestion and also an invitation to change the prospective through which we perceive the present, from an emergency point of view to an enrichment one, the one that only a flow of people and therefore of culture could offer, as the time has been able to testify.

And it’s the most problematic and hot continent to be celebrated and evoked, translated by the usual Watanabe’s modern glance. African and electro sonorities go along on the runway with the vivaciousness of the colours and of the decorations: very warm reds or clear, intense blues; kaftans and zebra-stripes dresses, tunics and shirts, garments able to face the highest temperatures, but also able to prepare us for more relaxed and evolved holidays.

Junya, Watanabe, SS2016, Full, Fashion Show

Constant asymmetries, elliptic constructions, experimental leopard spots on Japanese paper and complex fabric movements at the hem bring Africa and its chromatic, formal and symbolic qualities into the metropolitan and stateless circuits, where any traditional aesthetic contaminate and regenerate itself in peculiar, as independent, anthropological expressions.

Junya, Watanabe, Metalic, Rings, Dress, SS16

Junya Watanabe long kaftan dress in light polyester canvas with horizontal stripes ‘décor’ style and aluminium bangles, wide crew-neck, wide flared sleeve, big metallic bangles on the cuffs detachable with laces and loops.

Junya, Watanabe, SS 2016, Black, and, White, Dress

Junya Watanabe zebra-striped dress coming soon.

Junya Watanabe multi-layers rings necklace from the bigger to the smaller in shiny polyurethane and polyester imitation leather, it could be placed along the shoulders.

Photography from Junya Watanabe S/S 2016 lookbook.

Junya, Watanabe, SS 2016, Black, Dress

Junya Watanabe asymmetric robe manteau dress in polyester organza with tone on tone small spots processing in Japanese paper, wide half-closed shirt neck, ¾ flared sleeve, buttons closure till the bottom, spiral construction.

Junya Watanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya, Watanabe, SS2016, White, Shirt

Junya Watanabe long and wide shirt in light ramié canvas, raglan shoulder, long sleeve, sack line on the back and straight on the front.

A punto B long trousers in cotton poplin, elastic band and light curling at the band, welt vertical side pockets.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya, Watanabe, SS16, Red, Shirt

Junya Watanabe long and wide shirt in light ramié canvas, raglan shoulder, long sleeve, sack line on the back and straight on the front.

A punto B wide linen canvas trousers, elastic band and light curling at the belt, welt vertical side pockets.

Classic’ Trippen ankle-length boot in soft elk leather with rounded tip, diagonal zip on the upper part, side zip closure, removable cork insole, rubber sole.

Junya, Watanabe, SS16, Blue, Shirt, Dress

Junya, Watanabe, SS2016, Blue, Dress, Back

Junya Watanabe wide tunic in light ramié canvas, shirt neck with half-closed closure, flared line with stiff band, sack shape with central upside down V stitching and on the back at the bottom.

Junya Waatanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya, Watanabe, SS2016, Blue, Cotton, Dress

Junya Watanabe wide tunic in light cotton canvas, crew-neck with back small button, flared line with stiff band, sack shape with side stitching towards the inside at the bottom.

Junya Waatanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

 


 

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Comme des Garçons, Aw 2015-16, Paolo Roversi

Comme des Garçons by Paolo Roversi for Vogue Paris, October 2015

We would like to point out an interesting interview to Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Graçons designer and founder of the Maison that, besides the lines carrying the name (Comme des Garçons, Comme des Garçons-Comme des Garçons) produces Junya Watanabe, Noir-Kei Ninomiya and in the past Tao Kurihara. A not pretty commercial experience, but rather made of creativity and experimental research around clothing.

Not only some indications about the inspiring theme of the Autumn/Winter 2015-16 collection, ‘Ceremony of Separation’, but most of all a precious point of view on the meaning that an high creativity valence dress could embody and on the creativity process which supports it. A synthetic analysis on the possible physiological aspects turned up by wearing clothes that launch continuous challenge to our minds and on the hard exercise of constantly inventing ever seen works…

 

From the very creation of her line Comme des Garçons in 1969, the Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo has upended, reimagined, and revolutionized the codes and concepts of what fashion is and what it can be. Now 73, Kawakubo is no less visionary, still “drowning in the dark,” as she describes it, in search of something new.

 

TELL US ABOUT THE THEME OF THE FALL COLLECTION: I called it the Ceremony of Separation. It’s about how the beauty and power of ceremony can alleviate the pain of separating, for the one departing as well as for the one saying goodbye.

 

HOW DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO FEEL WHEN THEY WEAR COMME DES GARCONS? What someone wears is an expression of oneself. When you’re just comfortable with what you’re wearing, you don’t have new thoughts. I want people to feel something and think about who they are. You can’t become truly free if you no longer think about clothes. You need to occasionally wear something strong, and that can feel strange. It makes you aware of your existence and can reaffirm your relationship with society. I think people feel a minute current running through them as they come into contact with something made by someone exploring the limits. When you put on clothes that are fighting against something, you can feel your courage grow. Clothing can set you free.

 

WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS I’m always looking to make something that didn’t exist before, fumbling about in the dark, not just while making a collection. The search for something new is a constant in my everyday life. But constantly searching for something new is like looking for a well in a desert. It is like drowning in the dark, but creation is what I built Comme des Garçons on. For a collection, I need to push myself into a corner and find a way to get over the walls. The ideas are born disconnectedly, incoherently, and slowly, slowly, a final image emerges.

Rei, Kawakubo, Interview, Magazine

IS FASHION AN ART FORM? When fashion is driven by creation, I suppose it can be called an art form. But I have no concept of art in my work. Clothes are only completed when somebody actually wears them. If they were art, they could be more abstract. As long as something is new and has never been seen before, I don’t mind if people call it art. Wear them if you dare.

 

HOW DO YOU BALANCE ART AND COMMERCE? Comme des Garçons is a company founded on creation, but the link to business cannot be ignored. As the designer who is also head of the company, I have been able to “design” the company based on these same values. I want to take ultimate responsibility for the things I make and follow through everything right up to the end. What emerged, therefore, was a single decisive and coherent idea. Creation is our business.

 

DO YOU HAVE AN ULTIMATE GOAL? There is no end and no goal. As long as I’m attempting to make something that never existed before, an end is out of the question.

 

HOW IMPORTANT IS VISUAL COMMUNICATION? Extremely. I don’t trust words.

 

WHAT IS BEAUTY? Beauty should bring excitement.

Rei Kawakubo for Interview Magazine, October 2015 http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/rei-kawakubo-1#_


Our selection for Autumn/Winter 2015-16 collection:

 

Comme des Garçons, Dress, Junya Watanabe, Cape, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons calf-length dress in rayon velvet hand-cut lace with embroidered flowers, crew-neck, sleeveless, zip and hook back closure, slim fit cut at the waist.

Junya Watanabe wide corolla cape in wool jersey floral origami, zip closure.

Comme des garçons, Lace Jacket, aw 2015-16

Comme des Garçons man jacket in embroidered lace of washed cotton and polyester, single-breasted with lapels, joined at the bottom with an overlapping flap, one small button on the neck, two patch pockets, small back slit.

Comme des Garçons man trousers with darts in creased high-tech polyester fabric, very wide leg with turn-up at the hem, zip and two buttons closure, two side welt pockets, two back welt pockets, one with button, belt loops.

Comme des Garçons, Dress, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons calf-length dress in treated high-tech polyester fabric, wide line cut at the belt with back pleating, jacket with lapels bodice and joined flap, two horizontal welt pockets.

Trippen low-cut shoe in soft cowhide leather with overlapping diagonal crossed flap on the instep, new ‘spot’ sole with two rubber blocks and non-slipper base made on iron stamps.

Comme des Garçons, Ribbon Jacket, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons wool jacket larger at the bottom, single-breasted, central buttons, shirt rounded neck, raglan shoulder, squared raw cut holes with polyurethane ribbons in contrasting colour.

Comme des Garçons divided skirt in glossy silk and wool gabardine, balloon style, 2 side welt pockets, drawstring and elastic band at the belt, arch-shaped stitchings conferring wideness.

Comme des Garçons, AW 2015-16, Jacket

Comme des Garçons man jacket in treated high-tech polyester fabric, single-breasted with lapels, joined at the bottom with an overlapping flap, one small button on the neck, two patch pockets, small back slit.

Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons wide divided skirt in treated high-tech polyester fabric with vertical stripes weft, waistband and elastic band at the belt, side vertical pockets, flared on the sides.

Comme des Garçons, Dress, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons calf-length dress in stiff wool and silk satin with see-through cloud lace inserts in jacquard cotton lace, crew-neck, sleeveless, wide egg line, side welt pockets, side zip closure.

Comme des Garçons, Sweater, Skirt, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons doubled sweater in nylon tulle on the inside coming out at the bottom and from the cuffs, and on the outside in three-dimensional knitted alpaca and wool with inside/outside cones, rounded neck, slim fit.

Comme des Garçons divided skirt in glossy silk and wool gabardine, balloon style, 2 side welt pockets, drawstring and elastic band at the belt, arch-shaped stitchings conferring wideness.

Trippen shoe in soft cowhide leather, slightly overlapped and asymmetric closure with laces, classic sole in non-slip rubber with rounded toe.

Comme des Garçons, Shirt, Skirt, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons short shirt in treated polyester poplin, crew-neck, with horizontal stitching at the bottom, slim fit, long sleeve, central and side zip, darts on the front, on the back and at the breast.

Comme des Garçons divided skirt in glossy silk and wool gabardine, balloon style, 2 side welt pockets, drawstring and elastic band at the belt, arch-shaped stitchings conferring wideness.

Comme des Garçons, Divided Skirt, AW 2015-16

Comme des Garçons calf-length divided skirt in embroidered lace of washed cotton and polyester, wide fit, a leg shorter than the other, drawstring and elastic band at the belt, 2 side welt pockets, could be wear entering just one leg.

 

 

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Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Dress

“Exploring dimensionality through clothing” has laically synthesized the spokesman of the Japanese designer in a pedantic announcement after the Autumn/Winter fashion show 2015-16 held at the Palais du Tokyo in Paris last 7th March.

Not new to astonishing textile exercises Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo’s favorite and still produced by the Comme des Garçons maison, in fact made his debut enchanting the audience with poetic floral structure to wear.

Yet the developing of the origami theme assumes today a different character, in certain aspects less ethereal, more conceptual and nearer to the immaterial and complex dimension of the algorithmic logic, where recursive and homogeneous series determinate almost perfect extensions.

Junya Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Dress

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Dress

Soft wool jersey spheres, of which three-dimensionality has been realized trough the obsessive repetition of a basic geometric pattern, decorate necks, dresses bottoms and sweaters or just stand as independent architectures in the cases of capes and scarves.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Dress

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Dress

In different experiments it’s the strictness of the pyramidal geometry, starting from an essential volumetric unit of measure, to be recomposed in polyester sateen sculptural jackets.

Junya, Waatanabe, AW 2015-16, Cape

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Skirt

The calculation obsession is showed off by complex and abstruse mathematic functions tattooed in the few free skin glimpses of the models on the runway: hands, ankles reveal the impetuosity of an irrepressible numeric word.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Runway

Junya Watanabe Autumn/Winter 2015-16 Runway Details

Source: style.com http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/fall-2015-ready-to-wear/junya-watanabe

Nature and culture, order and chaos, co-existing dichotomy from the revelations of the most modern physics, are translated into harmonious decorative fabric abstractions.

The most cyber and post-modern of the Japanese designers seems going to the fractal complex theoretical visions, he’s experimenting a fabric expression to wear with its usual and peculiar visionary character, in certain case even in the routine of the everyday life, taking us with bewilderment and well in advance respect the others towards unimaginable future horizons.

Junya, Watanbe, AW 2015-16, T-Shirt, Dress

Junya Watanabe wool jersey dress with wide corolla neck in three-dimensional origami, soft fit, sleeve tight to the waist, wearable also as a t-shirt.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Cape

Junya Watanabe hip-length sculpture cape with pyramid origami in polyester sateen, hook closure, oval gab on the back, lined.

Junya, Watanabe, AW, 2015-16, Dress

Junya Watanabe calf-length striped dress in light wool jersey with three-dimensional origami half-moon bottom, crew-neck, shorts pants on the inside, back zip closure.

Junya, Watanabe, Shirt, Skirt, AW 2015-16

Junya Watanabe classic man shirt in horizontal pleated cotton and polyester, rounded hem, cuff with button, central button closure, shirt neck.

Junya Watanabe calf-length skirt in origami polyester taffetas, elastic band at the waist, reversible, tighter on a side at the hem, flared on the other side, reversible and wearable as a cape.

Junya Watanabe Oxford style shoe in oiled and suede cowhide leather with an aged effect, strings closure, 2 shells rubber sole.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Cardigan

Junya Watanabe hip-length cardigan in light wool jersey with shawl floral origami neck, long sleeve, central small buttons closure.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Jacket, Shirt, Skirt

Junya Watanabe cape jacket in polyester sateen, turtle-neck, single-breasted, ¾ sleeve, flat on front, wide back with waves and darts, central buttons closure.

Junya Watanabe classic man shirt in horizontal pleated cotton and polyester, rounded hem, cuff with button, central button closure, shirt neck.

Junya Watanabe calf-length skirt in origami polyester taffetas, elastic band at the waist, reversible, tighter on a side at the hem, flared on the other side, reversible and wearable as a cape.

Junya, Watanabe, AW 2015-16, Cape

Junya Watanabe wide corolla cape in wool jersey floral origami, zip closure.

Junya Watanabe classic man shirt in horizontal pleated cotton and polyester, rounded hem, cuff with button, central button closure, shirt neck.

 

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The dresses of Comme des Garçons are asymmetric, essential, pure expression of a deconstructionism deeply rooted in the brand identity. In these dresses it is possible to perceive a sort of charm for the incomplete, the unfinished hems, the raw cuts, as Rei Kawakubo asserts, brand founder and designer, are a way to project the dress onto the future, to leave open the chance that something else could be generated.

Comme des Garçons, SS2014, TopComme des Garçons, SS2014, TopComme des Garçons, SS 2014, Jacket

This self-taught well-read designer challenges herself collection after collection to create something new, radical, absolutely fresh. In this way her “fashion” becomes a tool for the mind liberation, an unceasing questioning and pushing behind the faint boundary between art and fashion, an incessant game of tensions and research, of vibrations, references and provocations.

Comme des Garçons, SS2014, ShowroomComme des Garçons, SS 2014, Cage DressComme des Garçons, SS2014, Shoe CoversComme des Garçons, SS 2014, Shoes

For the Spring-Summer 2014 Rei Kawakubo declares that the only way to make something different is to start with the intention to not design clothes. Actually on the catwalk moving sculptures, that not even meet anymore the logics of functionality, wearability and aesthetic harmony, succeed one another. The black colour leit-motif interrupted by shocking pink splashes, together with the brief musical themes, creates an uninterrupted tension bringing the spectator to ask himself: -what she could do more than this?-.

Comme des Garçons, SS 2014, DressComme des Garçons, SS 2014, JacketComme des Garçons, SS 2014, Dress

As a dodecaphonic musical language or a jazz piece with a sonority unpleasant at the first listening, these shapes are an invitation to the silence, an invitation to go past the well-known in order to open the mind and the spirit to new horizons and new perspectives. In other word, to grow up.

Comme des Garçons, SS2014, DressComme des Garçons, SS2014, DressComme des Garçons, SS 2014, Dress

Discover the Spring/Summer 2014 collection on IVO MILAN!

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