Comme des Garçons

Comme des Garçons (Japaneseコム·デ·ギャルソン, komu de gyaruson ) is a 1969 in Tokyo, founded by Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, internationally known avant-garde fashion brand, sold under the name of high-priced clothing, accessories and perfume for men and women.

The turnover of the company that has positioned itself as a niche brand in the international world of fashion in the mid- 2000s was about 180 million U.S. dollars. The CEO is the Briton Adrian Joffe, 1992 Husband of the company founder.

History

The brand was introduced by the former stylist Rei Kawakubo in 1969 and the company in 1973 as the KK Comme des Garçons (株式会社 コムデギャルソン, Kabushiki - gaisha Komu de Gyaruson ), Minato (Tokyo) founded.

The French term " Comme des Garçons ' means" like boys ". Although the name suggests that men's or boys' fashion is produced, introduced a men's line of women's fashion in 1978. To date, the use of French expressions, especially in the field of fashion is popular in Japan, although it is speculated that Kawakubo chose the name with respect to the intentional androgyny of their designs and the song Tous les garçons et les filles (1962 ) by Françoise Hardy borrowed.

Debut in 1981 with Comme des Garçons in Paris and opened there in the same year a boutique. A French branch ( Comme des Garçons SA) was established in 1982. From 1988, Rei Kawakubo published twice a year for several years, the magazine " Six". It contained mainly photos and images. In 1994, the first perfume was launched in collaboration with the Spanish group Puig, so far, more than 40 fragrances created. Rei Kawakubo has always been the sole owner of their fashion brand.

The company makes to a few fancy print campaigns as well as no advertising, although, for example, the Icelandic singer Björk was already working as a model for " Comme des Garçons ".

The fashion

The first shown in Paris prêt-à- porter collections were a scandal and attracted wide media attention after itself. Critics described the collections as " post-atomic shreds look", " Hiroshima chic" and " Quasimodo -style". Would Shown is a so-called "aesthetics of poverty ": strewn with holes dresses that looked like moth-eaten, shapeless robes, held by ropes instead of belts, skirts torn strips of fabric and ruffled hair of the models. The perceived as radical collections were kept in dark colors. In contrast to Western fashion is sparked Comme des Garçons of the female silhouette and brought entirely new forms in the fashion, so that contradicted the dominant ideal of beauty in 1981 and exposed the created by the company image of women as artificial. Due to the innovative ideas of Rei Kawakubo of later fashion style of the 1980s was marked decisively and for all the criticism, some of the stylistic devices used found in subsequent seasons with other designers again. In another major collection of Comme des Garçons, the spring collection 1997, dresses were shown, which were so heavily padded that ridges and humps revealed. Kawakubo wanted to explore volume and space according to its own information. With the protuberances on the back lots of the unity of the promoter should be symbolized with the brace ends to load everyday example of a backpack, padding on the sleeves should readjust the typical posture of mobile phone carriers. For Fall / Winter 2012 Kawakubo showed a collection of flat, two -dimensional sheets clothes, which should be created based on something simple something new. Critics interpreted these designs, for example, as a satire on the increasingly verflachende Internet Society.

Recurring motifs at Comme des Garçons are the color black ( although since the late 1980s reinforced colored elements are used ), the deconstructionist making visible seams and hems, several consecutive layers of fabric, asymmetrical shirt or jacket lengths, since the early 1990s, various polka dots ( "polka dots" ), with patches or cut parts of garments replied, deliberately old or used materials appearing, dhoti -like trousers, and sometimes one of the Japanese modesty appropriate sparseness of the designs, but which may have the same playful ruffles.

Kawakubo was with respect to their unusual and intellectually challenging creations of the press as " High Priestess of the avant-garde fashion " or due to the many possibilities of interpretation that allow their designs, the "Mona Lisa of fashion " called. Comme des Garçons defends itself against the commercialization of fashion. Experts suggest that the brand similar to great commercial success as Gucci could have if more emphasis had been placed on mass compatibility. But Rei Kawakubo says herself that she was dissatisfied with any collection that would please the people immediately, as they would then have to take to have the viewer not demanded enough. Accordingly, the designer " [ a] ny season radically new clothes [ to ] create forms that has never seen anyone. " Tried with the aim to blur the " contact zone between body shape and clothing ."

Since the 1990s, the designer Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe and Tao -student Kurihara design for " Comme des Garçons " main line, marketed under the same name but also sub-brands. Just below Watanabe Comme des Garçons directed over the years has, inter alia, collaborates with Levi's, Speedo, Vivienne Westwood and Fred Perry.

In autumn 2008 Comme des Garçons introduced a low -priced collection for H & M as part of the designer collaborations the Swedish fashion house on the market, which was sold out in a short time. In addition to women's and men 's clothing was also a unisex fragrance on offer.

Collections

See: Rei Kawakubo

Perfumes

Since 1994, produces the Comme des Garçons Parfums SA established in Paris in collaboration with the German perfumer Mark Buxton, a number of ( Unisex ) fragrances. The sometimes unconventional fragrances from Comme des Garcons Rei Kawakubo be of as "non - perfume " because they are reminiscent of various cultures, memoirs and everyday situations. License partner of Comme des Garçons Parfums is the Spanish Puig Beauty & Fashion Group.

Boutiques

Comme des Garçons has company-owned stores, eg London, Paris, New York City and Tokyo. Dresses are there like (art) objects presented, not as goods. Fashion is part of an overall concept. So Comme des Garçons was the first fashion brand to let make a store of architects to match the collection. This idea found many imitators, such as Prada or Louis Vuitton, what Rei Kawakubo moved to abandon this concept again. Instead, it was from 2004 so-called " guerrilla stores "; temporary stores that remained for only one year on the same, mostly unconventional, place and were then closed. The first guerrilla store opened in collaboration with the architecture student Christian wine corner and the designer Lil Schlichting - Stegemann in the former Bertolt Brecht bookstore in Berlin in 2004. More Guerrilla Stores created for one year in Barcelona, Warsaw, Singapore, Hong Kong, Reykjavik, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Glasgow, Cologne, Basel, Athens, Krakow, Los Angeles, The Hague, and Beirut. In the company's " Dover Street Market " in London, and since 2012 also in the Ginza, the fashion is presented at market stalls or in shops -in-shop. Other, high-priced designer brands can offer their fashion in addition to the Comme des Garçons collections here.