Coming Undone - Making Fashion By Not Making Fashion: The 'Un-ness' of Rei Kawakubo

Braddock-Clarke, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2794-5138 (2014) Coming Undone - Making Fashion By Not Making Fashion: The 'Un-ness' of Rei Kawakubo. Selvedge, 56 (56). pp. 61-63. ISSN 9-771742-254020-56

	Text SEBC COMING UNDONE - COMME DES GARÇONS.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Falmouth staff and students only Download (622kB) | Request a copy
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Abstract / Summary

1,000 word illustrated article on the work of fashion designer Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons. Published by Selvedge magazine, London. Issue 56 - pages 61-63. January/February 2014 - the 'Hollywood' issue. Rei Kawakubo adopts a radical stance in her work for Comme des Garçons. Famous for her ‘starting from zero’ sensibility and her questioning of accepted concepts of beauty she offers a truly avant-garde approach to the clothed body where the words unconventional, unorthodox, unfamiliar, unusual, unpredictable, unexpected and (seemingly) unfinished can all be used to describe. Her collections challenge the norm, go against the grain and are always anti-formulaic. By adopting a highly cerebral viewpoint Rei Kawakubo frequently embeds codes to comment on what fashion says about the individual and society. To enlarge upon the idea of starting from zero or beginning with the bare minimum Rei Kawakubo subverts basic principles: she makes fashion by not thinking of making fashion, but by thinking of something different. Revolutionary in her vision, she is a natural rebel - never repeating or doing the same thing twice. The ongoing dialogue that seems to take place within the garment in turn speaks to the wearer. No wonder then that those who wear Comme des Garçons return to her house time and time again. Existing and expressing in her domain, Rei Kawakubo (by her own choosing) is out of place and out of time – but always outstandingly original.

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