Rei Kawakubo transforms the concept of smallness into monumental artistry in Comme des Garçons' breathtaking FW25 collection.
By Jesse Scott
Explaining her inspiration for the latest Comme des Garçons collection in the show notes, Rei Kawakubo reflected that "there is strong value in small. Small can be mighty." On this we can agree. But there was nothing small, either in physical form or metaphorical poignance, about the twenty impeccably constructed looks that made their way down Kawakubo's runway this Fashion Week. A master of sculptural design and complex layering, Kawakubo consistently develops grand yet cohesive visions then executes them with the precision of an architect and the gentle touch of the artist. This season saw her combine such diverse textiles as velvet, wool, tartan, and houndstooth into voluminous silhouettes that seemed perfectly balanced despite their elaborate and often asymmetrical nature.
Kawakubo's Living, Breathing Sartorial Art
When viewed on the runway, many of Kawakubo's dresses seemed to defy both logic and gravity - meticulously layered into firm structures that open discourse with elements of interior design. Yet simultaneously they possessed an enchanting fluidity of motion. At times angular, at times undulating, the lines of Kawakubo's pieces recalled the harmonious chaos (or order achieved THROUGH chaos) of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Like the Cubists a century ago, Kawakubo achieves simplicity through complexity - using revolutionary and painstaking techniques to challenge our pre-conceptions and express emotion or shape in its most pure form. She also achieves complexity through simplicity, remaining loyal to her DNA each season and imaginatively building collections around open-ended concepts such as "small can be mighty."
The first look, seemingly a deconstructed then reconstructed and distorted pinstripe suit, was an excellent example. A maximalist play on business wear, it flowed in waves down the model's body while retaining a firm shape as if having been extracted from a painting (Look 1). Later on, an elaborate black and white tartan dress seemed to reference an increasingly sophisticated and slightly rotated form of the Victorian bustle (Look 3). And a black and white pinstripe look, skirts winding around the model in layers, added lace petticoats to a form of men's "power blazer" to irreverently contort a foundation of business formal into something far more modernist (Look 16).
Kawakubo pulled back the curtain to the garment construction process even while creating mysteries of her own. An intricately pleated bright red look was a surrealist fantasy that seemed to amalgamate several different construction processes as if on a futuristic skyscraper (Look 18). Meanwhile, an hourglass-shaped dress in radiant shades of crimson and pink was a veritable matryoshka doll enveloping the model (Look 8).
Elaborate Headwear Completes Collection
Comme des Garçons proposed the most spectacular accessories on the runway this season - and it wasn't close. Dramatic yet delicately constructed headpieces, many appearing to be made from two hats combined and some entirely concealing the models' faces, offered delightful over-exaggerated twists on those worn in the Belle Epoque and memorialized for posterity by the Impressionists (Looks 2, 11). They epitomized the synthesis of scientific precision with extravagant fantasy, something that has long characterized Kawakubo's work. One of the most imaginative yet technically impressive collections of Paris Fashion Week, Comme des Garçons FW25 reminds us why we all fell in love with the designer.
