This Spring, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will pay homage to Rei Kawakubo, the founder of Comme des Garçons, in an exhibit titled the Art of the In-Between. The exhibit will not be a traditional retrospective. This is the first time since the 80s that the Institute will showcase a living designer.
Comme des Garçons is well known for challenging conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and, ultimately, fashionability. The exhibit will feature about 120 Comme des Garçons womenswear designs by Kawakubo, dating back to the label’s first runway collection in 1981, all the way to her most recent shows.
“Rei Kawakubo is one of the most important and influential designers of the past forty years,” said the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, Andrew Bolton. “By inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation, and hybridity, she has defined the aesthetics of our time.”
The exhibit pre-opening party, better known as the Met Gala, always takes place on the first Monday in May. This year, it’s May 1. You can bet that the red carpet will be almost entirely dressed in black. After all, the brand’s all-black Paris debut was dubbed “Hiroshima chic”.
With only seven months to prepare, we thought we would begin a running CDG (Comme des Garcons) collection that includes a variety of vintage and new items. We will continue to keep the selection updated and hopefully you will be fully armed and inspired by the time May comes around.
