Rei Kawakubo
Rei Kawakubo (Japanese川 久保 玲, Rei Kawakubo, born October 11, 1942 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese prêt -à -porter fashion designer from Tokyo.
1981 showed Kawakubo their avant-garde, unconventional fashion for the first time at the Paris fashion shows, after they had presented their womenswear collection since 1973 in Japan. Their often rated as intellectually collections for men and women are marketed under the fashion label Comme des Garçons. The company's headquarters is located in Tokyo, a branch since 1982 in Paris ( Comme des Garçons SA). Kawakubo has been married since 1992 with the British Adrian Joffe, who simultaneously is the CEO of Comme des Garçons.
Life
Beginnings in Japan
Kawakubo studied art at the Keio University in Tokyo. Her father was a university professor. In 1964 she began to work in the advertising department of a chemical company. Three years later she became a freelance stylist in Tokyo. Your profession and their independence were at that time in Japan as a break with the traditions of the country. Since Kawakubo, the Japanese fashion of the 60s and 70s very displeased, she began to design their own fashion in 1969. In 1973 she founded her own company with the French name Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd ( dt ' and boys '), which leads them alone until today, and presented her first womenswear collection in Japan. The use of French expressions, especially in the area of fashion, is popular to this day in Japan. Opened in 1976, Kawakubo its first flagship store in Tokyo. She developed the shop philosophy of minimalism: the architect Takao Kawasaki has developed a completely weißgekacheltes shop, in which only a few pieces of clothing were for sale. From the mid 1970s until the early 1990s Kawakubo and the Japanese avant-garde designer Yohji Yamamoto were a couple.
Work abroad
1981 showed Kawakubo their high-priced women's collection for the first time in Paris, which crashed with an absolutely opposite design philosophy on the European and international designers represented there.
The fashion show was a scandal and attracted wide media attention after itself.
Critics described the dismal collection as " post-atomic shreds look", " Hiroshima chic" and " Quasimodo -style".
1978 Kawakubo had begun an equally high-priced men's collection with the name of Comme des Garçons Homme.
As more sub-brands for men and women were added to the portfolio.
Opened in 1982, Kawakubo the first store outside of Japan, in Paris, and joined the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt -à- Porter at.
Since then she has also designed furniture and interiors for Paris fashion stores.
1992 was Kawakubo and her assistant protégé Junya Watanabe ( b. 1961 ), the design of some collections, and later her student Tao Kurihara. Nevertheless Kawakubo is still single owner of her company and financially independent. 2007 Kawakubo designed a polo shirt collection for British fashion label Fred Perry. In the fall of 2008 created a low -priced collection, as well as a unisex perfume for the Swedish fashion house H & M. Furthermore Kawakubo designed for swimming textile manufacturer Speedo collection of swimwear. Furthermore, you already worked with Vivienne Westwood and created in 2008 an exclusive bag collection for Louis Vuitton. With international brands like Levi's, Lacoste, Nike, The North Face, Moncler, Converse, Vans, 10 Corso Como, Visvim amongst others it has in the past often been under the management of Watanabe, design collaborations.
Collections
Created by Rei Kawakubo:
- Comme des Garçons - Main Line for Ladies (1973 )
- Comme des Garçons Noir - mostly in black held women's collection (from 1987)
- Comme Des Garçons Comme des Garçons - (also: ' Comme Comme ') womenswear diffusion line (from 1993)
- Comme des Garçons Homme Plus - main line for men ( from 1984)
- Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Sport - sporty version of the men's main line
- Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Evergreen - reissued classic men's main line (from 2005)
- Comme des Garçons Homme Deux - classic ready-made clothing for men ( since 1987)
- Comme des Garcons SHIRT - casual sportswear collection (from 1988 )
- PLAY Comme des Garcons - youthful sportswear collection with red heart logo of the New York Graphic Künstlerers Filip Pagowski
- BLACK Comme des Garçons - temporary niedrigepreisigere sideline with CDG classics in response to the global economic crisis, own temporary boutiques (from 2009)
Junya Watanabe created by:
- Comme des Garcons Homme - Japanese menswear line (from 1978 )
- Comme des Garçons Robe de Chambre - Japanese Ladies - line ( set )
- Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons - Women (1992 )
- Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons Man - Men's Fashion (from 2001)
- Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons Man Pink - menswear items for women ( adjusted )
- Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons eye Man - Sportswear collection, often in collaboration with other clothing brands
Created by Tao Kurihara:
- Tao Comme des Garçons - Women's Fashion ( from 2005)
- Tricot Comme des Garçons - Women trickmode
Other:
- Comme des Garçons Edited - special items for Edited shops in Japan
- Ganryu Comme des Garçons - unisex streetwear by Fumito Ganryu in Japan, a former assistant of Watanabe (from 2008)
- Comme des Garçons Speedo - Swimwear with the manufacturer Speedo, also under the label Comme des Garcons PLAY
- Comme des Garçons Pearl - Jewelry (since 2006)
- Comme des Garçons Parfum - Perfume numerous creations for CDG (from 1994)
- Comme des Garçons Parfum PERFUME - perfume creations for other brands
- Comme des Garçons Wallet - Leather goods
- Comme des Garçons Underwear - underwear collection
- DSM Label - sportswear collection for the Company's Boutique Dover Street Market in London
Marketing and Sales
In Japan there are several boutiques of the label Comme des Garçons, two of them alone in Tokyo. The new flagship store is located in Tokyo's Minami Aoyama. Department stores such as Mitsukoshi and Seibu market the label also. In Europe there are only two own stores in Paris and London. The company-owned and named after its address in the Dover Street Dover Street Market in London offers the collections of CDG other international designer brands, mostly in the shop-in -shop concept at. 2012, Dover Street Market store was opened in the Tokyo Ginza. Another CDG Shop existed in New York. In Germany only very few stores sell the brands of Japanese designer, including former Guerrilla Store in Berlin ( see below). 2008 Pocket Kawakubo opened two stores in the areas of Paris Marais and Abbesses. The new concept consists of a small, minimalist furnished, business, which only leads to Play Comme des Garçons brand, accessories and perfumes. Another business named White Box Opened in 2007 in Hong Kong. Since the late 2000s there are temporary BLACK Comme des Garçons boutiques in Japan.
A marketing project of the company established in 2004 in Berlin: the guerrilla store concept provides for an annual displacement of a temporarily erected Comme des Garçons stores away from the typical shopping streets. So already Stores Berlin (3x ), Singapore, Moscow and Vienna were in Los Angeles, Warsaw, New York, opened and closed again after one year. In the summer of 2008 was the Guerrilla Store by Rei Kawakubo guest at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf.
Literature ( in chronological order )
- Commes Des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo. Rizzoli, 1990, ISBN 0-8478-1196-4.
- France Grand: Comme des garçons. Schirmer / Mosel, Munich, etc. 1998, ISBN 3-88814-634-8.
- Ingrid Loschek: When is Fashion? Structures, strategies, and innovations. Reimer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-496-01374-7.
- Refusing Fashion: Rei Kawakubo. Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit 2008, ISBN 0-9791991 -4- X. ( Exhibition catalog)