T Magazine: Remembering One of Rei Kawakubo’s Most Boundary-Breaking Shows
For more than 40 years, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons — who is the subject of the show “Art of the In-Between,” which opens to the public today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — has explored disparate themes in her work. She has redefined punk, explored the rituals of marriage and death and the codes of masculinity and femininity.
But even by her own uncompromising standards, her spring/summer 2014 collection, simply titled “Not Making Clothes,” was a bold statement of intent. Held on a curved runway at the Espace Vendôme in Paris, and lit only by a swinging pendulum of light, Kawakubo sent out an extraordinary procession of 23 looks, each accompanied by its own ghostly musical composition (provided by the artist Sabisha Friedberg, under the alias of Twenty Hertz). The pieces she showcased included padded cages, a tire worn around the waist and held up by metal chains and, in one instance, a teddy bear folded into a frothy pink confection. As Kawakubo has said, “I had come to the point where I was feeling that I couldn’t create anything new without radically changing my thinking. I felt that the only way to make something new was to not set out to make clothes.”
The collection marked a “second rupture” for Kawakubo (the first being in 1979, when she started creating more directional clothes) and the seven collections she has shown since have been among the purest, most radical expressions of her vision to date. T spoke with her closest collaborators and fashion critics about the making — and impact — of the boundary-breaking “Not Making Clothes” show.
Adrian Joffe
Husband of Kawakubo and President of Comme des Garçons International and Dover Street Market International
“It was just what Rei felt at that moment in time, right or not. She felt she had come up to some kind of wall, and had to do something to get over it. It was certainly one of the most difficult experiences I’ve seen her go through, but one that ended up being somehow liberating. In a way that is a paradox, but ultimately — at least for her — rather logical. She never likes to look back and always is trying to unburden herself from her past experiences, but this time she attempted to change her whole mindset, trying as far as is possible to actually be somebody else. As with everything Rei ever does, there is the Whole. She is always thinking about everything. Getting a music artist as original and creative as Twenty Hertz was an amazing accident, because we only decided the day before. I was heavily involved in the planning of the presentation particularly concerning the music and the lights, but when I first saw the clothes, again two days before, my mind was blown away. I have to say it is always an incredibly moving experience to see the collection for the first time.”
Julien d’Ys
Hairstylist and artist who has worked with Kawakubo for over 30 years
“I hadn’t seen the collection until the day before the show. She usually just gives me a word and an idea of the show. But with this one, it was almost no words. For me, it was difficult. But sometimes a bad experience lets you go somewhere — it made me forget about the clothes. I had this idea in my head for a Tree of Life, something very spiritual. I thought it could be a good idea of doing the girl with hair like a tree. So I made these sculptures on the head of the girls out of metal, stocking and ribbon. With the makeup, I gave the girls very dark lipstick so it looked like little girls who have smeared chocolate on their mouths. But even with that, the girl looks beautiful. I like to bring something poetic to it. I always say to her, “I’m not a makeup artist!” And she tells me, “Well, that’s why I like you!” She always likes something a bit wrong, that’s why she wants me to do it. I’ve been working with her since 1983 and it’s almost like family. The way we work together — it’s the same way I’ve worked from the beginning. We don’t need to talk too much. We are very connected sometimes. She pushes me all the time to go over my creativity.”
Thierry Dreyfus
Head of Eyesight Group, lighting designer and show producer
“With Comme des Garçons, I usually only have two days to work on the show. There is no real brief, sometimes one word. But with Rei, you don’t need to explain, the spirit is in the collection. But if you asked me where does the inspiration for the set or the lights come from? The answer, logically, is from Rei. She and Adrian have found people around her who have this way of working also. It is always a sincere honor to be able to work with such a creative and inspirational rare human individual.”
Sabisha Friedberg
Artist who created the soundtrack for the show
“I was called quite early in the morning — I happened to be in Paris — and was asked if I could come to the studio. It was the day before the show and Rei was not satisfied with the music that had been presented to her thus far. I was seated in a room and several looks on models were presented to me. I did not expect what happened next. I was filled with a profound emotion. Something of a deep melancholy and that of the sublime beauty that startles you and suspends your belief. Right then, as I observed, I heard the music strains of the St. Matthew Passion in my mind. I decided this would be the musical armature. It would serve as a basis for the soundtrack which would be presented and mixed live at the show on tape and three turntables. I thought that each individual look’s personality deserved a different sonic story to accompany it and each sound was presented with a specific intention. The goal was to create an immersive experience for the attendees but also for the models to engage with. A living story sonically for the garments. What is unique about working with Rei is that she really allows an artist to work. Her vision is so clear, it allows one to be strongly directed in one’s own craft. This was the first time I made a musical sequence for a show. I have been approached by other designers but, honestly, I would only ever do this for Rei Kawakubo. She has a level of integrity like no other. Comme des Garçons transcends fashion for me.”
Paolo Roversi
Photographer who has collaborated with Kawakubo since 1983
“I’ve been working with her since the beginning. Every show Rei does has been different and new. It is never obvious, always a surprise. She’s the only designer who has such a rich history, always taking risks and going where she never has before. She redefines beauty and the idea of elegance and femininity. There is some point of view that we share — a kind of melancholy that’s always there. Her clothes are abstract but I don’t see them as objects for the body — I see it more like a dream, a vision. I think her work is timeless. When it is in front of my camera, the clothes are absolutely alive and had the same energy and power they had as when they were created. This exhibition is a bit emotional for me. At the beginning, it was a little bit out of the establishment and now she’s at the Met and I think that’s fantastic.”
Susannah Frankel
Editor in chief of AnOther magazine who attended the show
“I felt elated. Apart from the emotional power evoked by those huge pieces and therefore the strength of the women wearing them, it’s what Comme des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo stand for that is so completely inspiring. It’s about freedom, ultimately: the freedom to create in the way you want to create, without compromise. And I love and respect that. Comme des Garçons has always been anti-establishment. In the early years, that was expressed by Kawakubo’s challenging our preconceptions of what fashion might be. Now, she seems to be challenging the notion that a fashion show needs to include clothes, as we perceive them, at all. It’s especially interesting as today the shows are often very much about product, piling on accessories, jewelry, eyewear and so forth. What Comme is doing is really in direct opposition to that and the wonderful thing about it is that it works. Rei Kawakubo has one of the most successful fashion empires in the world.”
Andrew Bolton
Curator in charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
“When I saw the show, I was so taken aback at what prompted this. What does it mean that my first reaction was to go to my intellect rather than my emotions? That was probably a mistake! It was extraordinary — you were aware it was a rupture. She told me she had been frustrated with her design process and she thought it was hindering her pursuit of newness. She thought that by adopting a more radical method of creation that was primarily based on the intention of not making clothes, she aspired in directly translating her ideas into forms, what she calls objects on the body. She was also inspired by the outsider art movement — a group of artists who saw the world differently. The collections from spring/summer ’14 presage themes and motifs explored before — the difference may be that the clothes from early collections are challenging but insist on their viability as apparel whereas the latter are more abstract expressions. They have more in common with performance artworks than her previous clothes.
“The title ‘Not Making Clothes’ was a statement of intent to favor form over function. What the designs do is break with traditional fashion in relation to the human figure — they obscure and overwhelm the body. From that show on, it freed her to think about clothing in a different way. They allowed her to use the runway as an expression of pure ideas without having to think about selling clothing. Over the year of working with Rei, what I’ve learned to do more was to get references out of my mind and start at ground zero where she does. She changes one’s eye and challenges one’s expectation of fashion and conventions of beauty. More than anything else — it’s hard to think of a designer who hasn’t compromised one iota to the fashion system.”
