T H E P O W E R L I S T
W O M E N I N F A S H I O N
9. Rei Kawabuko
Comme des garçons' Avatar of the avant-garde
When Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo arrived in Paris in 1981 to
show her Comme des Garçons ready-to-wear collection to the
Western press for the first time, critics branded her mannish
coats, inky palette and distressed fabrics "post-atomic" and
"Hiroshima chic." They dismissed her unfinished seams and
asymmetrical cuts as absurd.
At that moment in fashion, French couturiers ruled the roost.
Black was not a color worn during the day, and clothes were
intended to be objects of ornamentation. In fact, Kawakubo's
concept that clothes should express something other than
sexuality was unthinkable. Instead of taking traditional fashion
cues, Kawakubo, who had come to design from textile advertising,
looked to masculine dress, street culture and her Japanese
heritage for inspiration. While other designers were cutting and
draping their silhouettes, Kawakubo was slashing and shredding
and twisting and sculpting hers. In everything she created, she
challenged the notion that fashion was meant to beautify or to be
beautiful.
Of course, black is now the preferred palette for day, and the
diminutive designer has become a giant of the avant-garde. Where
Kawakubo ventures, other designers will inevitably follow—her
influence fueled by her consistent provocation.
In 1997 she outraged observers with a collection that questioned
the very shape of women's bodies. Known as the bump collection,
it deformed the silhouette with Quasimodo-style padded lumps
placed strangely and strategically on models' backs, shoulders
and hips. For spring 2004, when every designer was sending
cliches of femininity down the runway, Kawakubo left many in the
audience perplexed by presenting models in voluminous skirts cut
from traditional Japanese fabrics. Instead of blouses, they wore
sheer swaths of tulle over bare breasts. Even Kawakubo's perfumes
defy convention. Odeur 53, created in 1998, has notes of nail
polish and burnt rubber. The idea was to express smells that
nobody would recognize.
Today Kawakubo presides over a multimillion-dollar privately held
company with both commercial and fashion-forward lines for men
and women, a perfume license with Puig and a new joint venture
with Fred Perry. She also collaborates with Vivienne Westwood on
a collection sold exclusively in Tokyo.
