Rei Kawakubo
(1942-Present)
Biography
Rei Kawakubo was born in Tokyo, Japan. She studied literature and Japanese and Western art at Keio University where her father was a professor (Alford). She started school when Japan was a defeated, occupied country during the Post-WWII era. Unlike many Japanese designers, she had no formal training in fashion (Polan). After graduating with a degree in fine arts in 1964, she went to work for the advertising department for Asahi Kasei, a major chemical company that produced acrylic fibers and promoted its products through fashionable clothing. The company first exposed Kawakubo to fashion. In 1967, she went on to become one of the first freelance stylists in Japan (Polan). She was dissatisfied with the clothing available to her during fashion shoots, so she started designing garments of her own (Bodine).
In 1969, Kawakubo launched Comme des Garçons for the clothes she designed as a stylist and the advertisements she styled (Polan). Her first shop opened in 1975 in Minami-Aoyama. The company later expanded from solely womenswear to menswear, fragances, home furnishings, and freestanding stores worldwide (Alford). The brand combined traditional Japanese streetwear with pure simplicity of style, fabric, and color. She moved to Paris in 1980 presenting her lines there each season and opening up her first Paris boutique (Palomo-Lovinksi).
In 1969, Kawakubo launched Comme des Garçons for the clothes she designed as a stylist and the advertisements she styled (Polan). Her first shop opened in 1975 in Minami-Aoyama. The company later expanded from solely womenswear to menswear, fragances, home furnishings, and freestanding stores worldwide (Alford). The brand combined traditional Japanese streetwear with pure simplicity of style, fabric, and color. She moved to Paris in 1980 presenting her lines there each season and opening up her first Paris boutique (Palomo-Lovinksi).
Designs
Critical Analysis
It was a prolific age for Japanese designers with predecessor Kenzo Takada and compatriots Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto leading the way in Paris. Kawakubo grew up in a war-torn Japan where there was a constant struggle to maintain a solid identity with the worlds of traditional Japan and that of the US soldiers occupying the country at the time. Like Miyake, she has a continuous theme of East meets West in her collections. Her goal was to deconstruct and question the clichés and familiar elements of western and oriental clothing to make the audience think. Both worlds isolated the role of women to a distinct type of sensuality. Her rise in the 1980s reflected her philosophy of self-sufficient women (Polan).
The aftermath of the women’s rights movement of the 70s changed the role of women in society forever. The women in the West were joining the work force of business that was typically dominated by males. The concept of feminism and rebellion are often subjects in her collections. She was inspired by the strong shoulder shapes and powersuits and integrated that aesthetic with Japan’s 1,000-year-old philosophy of “wabi-sabi” (Palomo-Lovinski) that encompasses asymmetry and imperfection as a reminder of the fragility and brevity of beauty (Polan). Fashion was forced to reassess the source of female sensuality and sexual attraction. “The goal for all women should be to maker her own living and to support herself, to be self-sufficient”(Polan), Kawakubo believed. Her clothes were intended for modern women “…who do not need to assure their happiness by looking sexy to men, by emphasizing their figures, but who attract them with their minds” (Polan). She explores the relationship of clothes to the body and how garments express or do not express sexuality.
“I never lose my ability to rebel, I get angry and the anger becomes my energy for certain. I would not be able to create anything if I stopped rebelling.”
-Rei Kawakubo (Palomo-Lovinski)
She was influenced by Madeleine Vionnet’s experimentation, unconventionality as opposed to trends, and development of a specific design philosophy. Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake were significant influences to Kawakubo. Yamamoto encouraged her to travel to Paris to debut her collection. Miyake also balances the themes of East and West in his designs as she attempts to do so and succeeds. He explores the relationship of clothing to the body, as is part of Kawakubo’s perspective on design. Through Elsa Schiaparelli, she used Surrealist elements, experimental uses of scale, color, symbolism, and pop culture. Schiaparelli’s goal of shocking the masses aligns with Kawakubo’s philosophy as well as the autonomy of women from men. Kawakubo studied Christian Dior’s New Look when looking to understand the Western aesthetic and relationship to the female figure. Vivienne Westwood’s role in the punk movement in England also fortified Kawakubo’s study of the Western aesthetic (Palomo-Lovinski).
Japanese philosophy, culture, and art were fundamental in Kawakubo’s work. She uses geisha-inspired makeup in her runway shows and utilizes the red sun from the Japanese flag on many garments and advertisements. The concept of “wabi-sabi” and the modest pensive nature of abstraction are still evident in her collections. Although art is a significant influence in her career, the designer believes “fashion is not art. You sell art to one person. Fashion comes in a series and is more of a social phenomenon. It is also something more personal and individual because you express your personality. It is an active participation; art is passive” (Palomo-Lovinski). Kawakubo is married to an architect and works closely with the architect Takao Kawasaki when developing new stores. Her garments encompass an architectural feel when exploring the relationship of that to the human figure (Palomo-Lovinski).
The aftermath of the women’s rights movement of the 70s changed the role of women in society forever. The women in the West were joining the work force of business that was typically dominated by males. The concept of feminism and rebellion are often subjects in her collections. She was inspired by the strong shoulder shapes and powersuits and integrated that aesthetic with Japan’s 1,000-year-old philosophy of “wabi-sabi” (Palomo-Lovinski) that encompasses asymmetry and imperfection as a reminder of the fragility and brevity of beauty (Polan). Fashion was forced to reassess the source of female sensuality and sexual attraction. “The goal for all women should be to maker her own living and to support herself, to be self-sufficient”(Polan), Kawakubo believed. Her clothes were intended for modern women “…who do not need to assure their happiness by looking sexy to men, by emphasizing their figures, but who attract them with their minds” (Polan). She explores the relationship of clothes to the body and how garments express or do not express sexuality.
“I never lose my ability to rebel, I get angry and the anger becomes my energy for certain. I would not be able to create anything if I stopped rebelling.”
-Rei Kawakubo (Palomo-Lovinski)
She was influenced by Madeleine Vionnet’s experimentation, unconventionality as opposed to trends, and development of a specific design philosophy. Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake were significant influences to Kawakubo. Yamamoto encouraged her to travel to Paris to debut her collection. Miyake also balances the themes of East and West in his designs as she attempts to do so and succeeds. He explores the relationship of clothing to the body, as is part of Kawakubo’s perspective on design. Through Elsa Schiaparelli, she used Surrealist elements, experimental uses of scale, color, symbolism, and pop culture. Schiaparelli’s goal of shocking the masses aligns with Kawakubo’s philosophy as well as the autonomy of women from men. Kawakubo studied Christian Dior’s New Look when looking to understand the Western aesthetic and relationship to the female figure. Vivienne Westwood’s role in the punk movement in England also fortified Kawakubo’s study of the Western aesthetic (Palomo-Lovinski).
Japanese philosophy, culture, and art were fundamental in Kawakubo’s work. She uses geisha-inspired makeup in her runway shows and utilizes the red sun from the Japanese flag on many garments and advertisements. The concept of “wabi-sabi” and the modest pensive nature of abstraction are still evident in her collections. Although art is a significant influence in her career, the designer believes “fashion is not art. You sell art to one person. Fashion comes in a series and is more of a social phenomenon. It is also something more personal and individual because you express your personality. It is an active participation; art is passive” (Palomo-Lovinski). Kawakubo is married to an architect and works closely with the architect Takao Kawasaki when developing new stores. Her garments encompass an architectural feel when exploring the relationship of that to the human figure (Palomo-Lovinski).
Influence
This designer is an icon for being one of the few “anti” designers in the avant-garde world of fashion. She was known not only for her design philosophy regarding women and culture, but also for her unconventional, innovative, and unapologetic designs. Her runway shows removed the theatrics of music and even sometimes an audience and replacing those with futuristic settings and intimate space-age interiors (Bodine). Her goal is to offer a personal experience of discovery in a way only artists have been able to translate to the masses. Fashion buyers and journalists are always puzzled by her work and when asked to explain her work which she cryptically answers resulting in more confusion (Palomo-Lovinski). While they may not understand her work, they continue to return every season to witness the future of fashion unfold in Kawakubo’s hands.
Her prolific work has inspired Hussein Chalayan’s conceptual, unconventional designs. Chalayan took Kawakubo’s philosophical approach to design and applied it into his perspective of the relationship of garments to the body. Marc Jacobs cites Kawakubo as a major influence on his designs. His Fall 2006 and Spring 2008 collections reflect her influence with the theory of Western ideals of silhouettes integrated with traditional Japanese standards of dress. Alexander McQueen has admired her work and her approach to empowering her female custoemers. Both designers view fashion from a global-centric perspective in terms of the role of women and image. Kawakubo’s protégé, Junya Watanabe absorbed all that she taught him using it as a foundation for his own designs. He says of Kawakubo “Rei has taught me everything about how to create”. He questions traditional values of dress and has learned to experiment with conceptual ideas and formulate his own design philosophy (Palomo-Lovinski).
Her lasting influence on fashion is her unique design philosophy, minimalist creations, and work ethic. The designer is known to be intensely work focuses and even masochistic in her passion. She finds enjoyment in doing things the hard way, explaining “it’s boring if things are accomplished too easily, right? When I work I think about the excitement of achievement after hard effort and pain” (Polan). Her rigid work ethic translates into monochromatic, minimalist, and modernist design themes. There is an essence of pragmatism in her construction of garments that have wearability and a redefined social function. She is constantly challenging the conventions of image and beauty with her quality garments as a metaphor for the self and body (Bodine). She takes control in every aspect of her brand from photography and layout for advertising, catalogues, and magazines, runway shows, and the design of her stores. Her magazine expressed enigmatic themes of the conscious, surrealism, exoticism, and Zen (Bodine). Commes des Garçons has become a leading fashion house in this modern age and with that recognition, Kawakubo’s ideas can be accessed across the continents. That success allows her unique perspective to be taught to women from the East to the West.
Her prolific work has inspired Hussein Chalayan’s conceptual, unconventional designs. Chalayan took Kawakubo’s philosophical approach to design and applied it into his perspective of the relationship of garments to the body. Marc Jacobs cites Kawakubo as a major influence on his designs. His Fall 2006 and Spring 2008 collections reflect her influence with the theory of Western ideals of silhouettes integrated with traditional Japanese standards of dress. Alexander McQueen has admired her work and her approach to empowering her female custoemers. Both designers view fashion from a global-centric perspective in terms of the role of women and image. Kawakubo’s protégé, Junya Watanabe absorbed all that she taught him using it as a foundation for his own designs. He says of Kawakubo “Rei has taught me everything about how to create”. He questions traditional values of dress and has learned to experiment with conceptual ideas and formulate his own design philosophy (Palomo-Lovinski).
Her lasting influence on fashion is her unique design philosophy, minimalist creations, and work ethic. The designer is known to be intensely work focuses and even masochistic in her passion. She finds enjoyment in doing things the hard way, explaining “it’s boring if things are accomplished too easily, right? When I work I think about the excitement of achievement after hard effort and pain” (Polan). Her rigid work ethic translates into monochromatic, minimalist, and modernist design themes. There is an essence of pragmatism in her construction of garments that have wearability and a redefined social function. She is constantly challenging the conventions of image and beauty with her quality garments as a metaphor for the self and body (Bodine). She takes control in every aspect of her brand from photography and layout for advertising, catalogues, and magazines, runway shows, and the design of her stores. Her magazine expressed enigmatic themes of the conscious, surrealism, exoticism, and Zen (Bodine). Commes des Garçons has become a leading fashion house in this modern age and with that recognition, Kawakubo’s ideas can be accessed across the continents. That success allows her unique perspective to be taught to women from the East to the West.
Work Cited
Alford, Holly Price, and Anne Stegemeyer. Who's Who In Fashion. Fifth ed. United States: Fairchild, 2010. Print.
Bodine, Sarah, and Diana Idzelis. "Kawakubo, Rei." Contemporary Fashion. Ed. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 2002. 365-368.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.
Jones, Terry, and Henriette Zeltner. Rei Kawakubo. Köln: Taschen, 2012. Print.
Palomo-Lovinski, Nöel. "Hussein Chalayan." The World's Most Influential Fashion Designers: Hidden Connections and Lasting Legacies of Fashion's Iconic Creators. New
York, NY: Barron's, 2010. 182-85. Print.
Polan, Brenda, and Roger Tredre. The Great Fashion Designers. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Print.
"The Beauty Trends That Defined The Summer." Vogue. Vogue, n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.< http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/1063261/best-summer-beauty-hair-trends/>.
Alford, Holly Price, and Anne Stegemeyer. Who's Who In Fashion. Fifth ed. United States: Fairchild, 2010. Print.
Bodine, Sarah, and Diana Idzelis. "Kawakubo, Rei." Contemporary Fashion. Ed. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 2002. 365-368.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.
Jones, Terry, and Henriette Zeltner. Rei Kawakubo. Köln: Taschen, 2012. Print.
Palomo-Lovinski, Nöel. "Hussein Chalayan." The World's Most Influential Fashion Designers: Hidden Connections and Lasting Legacies of Fashion's Iconic Creators. New
York, NY: Barron's, 2010. 182-85. Print.
Polan, Brenda, and Roger Tredre. The Great Fashion Designers. Oxford: Berg, 2009. Print.
"The Beauty Trends That Defined The Summer." Vogue. Vogue, n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.< http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/1063261/best-summer-beauty-hair-trends/>.