Character experience
Kawakubo's father is a professor at Keio University. She developed a keen interest in art when she was at university.
In 1967, after graduation, she went to work for a clothing company, and in 1969, she officially became an independent fashion designer, and in 1973 she set up a clothing brand, the name "Comme des Garcons" (French translated as "like a boy"; Often referred to as Comme); In 1975, at the age of 33, Rei Kawakubo was holding her first women's fashion show in Tokyo. In 1978, the brand began to have men's clothing, called HOMME.
Rise to fame
In 1981, Rei Kawakubo held her first Paris fashion show, at which time she began to receive the attention of the global fashion industry, the following year, her clothes have a simple nickname, called "beggar clothes"; And led the early 1980 loose, deliberately three-dimensional, broken, asymmetrical, do not show the body fashion design trend.
The design inspiration for this presentation is known to come from the culture of irregularities and imperfections in Japanese aesthetics. Her creative concepts and features have caused a lot of controversy among fashion critics, and have also led to the clothing design of late designers.
Rei Kawakubo is good at using low-color fabrics to form special clothes, many of which are single pieces of the same color design, in particular, black can be said to be Kawakubo's representative color.
In 1983, Kawakubo received the Mainichi Fashion Award, and in 1987, she received an honorary degree from the fashion institute of technology. Today she is one of the most important women's fashion designers of the 20th century.
Company situation
The main office is located in Paris. Rei Kawakubo is the main designer of the "Comme des Garcons" brand, and has 12 stores, and about 200 counters or boutiques around the world, according to media reports, Kawakubo's clothing brand annual profit of about 1.5 million US dollars. In the United States, Kawakubo's company regularly donated to orphanages and the American Baseball Association.
Starting in 1988, Kawakubo also published her own magazine, called Six. Her husband is British knitter Adrian Joffe.
COMME des Garcons' latest work is the "PLAY" series designed by Polish designer Pagorski, which has caused a great response in the fashion world.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the PLAY series will be used to support charitable causes. In 1981, the women's wear in Paris will cause the attention of the world pop stage, the next year more famous beggar dress concept to lead the contemporary fashion pioneer, the American fashion industry gave Kawakubo Rei "fashion pioneer" title, praise her not only in the fashion design to create new ideas, but also in the management of the brand flagship store unique vision. Rei Kawakubo opened her first clothing store in Soho, New York's art district, where there were no designer stores. Ten years later, when Soho was full of designer boutiques, Rei Kawakubo withdrew from this popular area and first moved to the former warehouse district of Kakuki, where the ultra-modern interior decoration once again caused a sensation.
Artistic characteristics
Kawakubo's original design style is very avant-garde, integrating the concept of East and West, and is known as an "alternative designer" in the fashion industry. Her design is, as the name suggests, independent and self-assertive - as long as I like it, why not.
She combines the Japanese tradition of elegance and quiet, three-dimensional geometric patterns, asymmetrical overlapping innovative tailoring, coupled with crisp lines and somber tones, and presents a very ideological beauty with creativity. Rei Kawakubo is a special exception: She did not go out to learn the model of others, nor did she go through orthodox training, but on the home of Tokyo, what she did was by no means purely national.
Her consciousness has far exceeded that of the avant-garde United States at that time, and the British Isles where punk originated. Her seemingly outlandish thoughts are actually very profound. Deep bottomless, so it will shine 20 years later, so that the younger generation of fashion designers worship, to deconstruct, to seek confidence. She is a true creator of fashion - a fashion designer with a true and original concept who has taken the world by storm in recent decades with her most important concept, black. In the early 1980s, Rei Kawakubo, a fashion designer from Japan, revolutionized the fashion of black, which had been limited to morning dresses and tuxedos. Because of her, black has become the eternal image of the most fashionable woman.
Kawakubo wears all black and has short, asymmetrical black shoulder-length hair. Say, "Black is comfortable, powerful and expressive. I've always been comfortable with having black." "I am committed to the three shadows of black."
Once she made a vermilion dress and explained that "black is red." Its commitment and dedication to black creates a pessimistic or ominous impression of this avant-garde Japanese designer.
Her unique direction towards costume design makes it always have the feel of a graveyard or a massacre. She has often been criticized by the media for sometimes showing outfits that resemble the shapeless loose-fitting suits worn by Nazi concentration camp prisoners, with minor modifications assembled on stage, often angering the public. She is no stranger to conservatives, but looking at her history, it is strange that she has become the designer of such fashion prophecies, translating black into a synonym for fashion designer and fashion.
After all, she founded her company in Tokyo in 1973 and introduced the world to a revolutionary new way of dressing. Since then, she has been striving for experimentation, always creating prototypes and concept clothes that are far ahead of fashion trends.
