Some may class it as a Japanese brand or some may suggest it is a French, but Kawakubo's avant-garde style deviates its self into a world of its own with her challenging perspective on fashion.
Since creating the brand back in 1969, Kawakubo has definitely turned heads with her distracting impressions of 20th century fashion on the runway. As for her themes, the designer brand is known for outraging people with beauty, sex appeal and eroticism to communicate a modernist view on the current state of womanhood in the western world. For instance, by using the term 'like boy's' Kawabuko has purposely created a brand that aspired to fill the wardrobes of women in the 70s and 80s with androgynous fashion. However, as a designer, Kawakubo ensured that there was still an appeal within her clothing for women by still maintaining a sensuality of silhouettes even though her true ideological aim was to destruct traditional female fashion and distinctively uses black as anarchists tool to do so.
On the subject of her controversial fashion statements, one aesthetic of fashion that Kawakubo can be seen to have completely outraged with was the designers first ever fashion show in Paris in 1981, making unforgettable first impressions in the industry. The show consisted of a distribution of models looking extremely Neo-Gothic, covered in war paint and wearing tattered clothing to communicate a new way of wearing materials in an abstract way. Contrastingly, it was seen as a vision of poverty and referred to the post 'Hiroshima' look, as stated by the press. The show which was nicknamed the 'Destroy' collection was known to put an end to the French Fashion Syndicate and ultimately, set the tone for what was expected from Commes des Garcon for the next 47 years.
Comme Des Garcon daytime wear 1981
Comme des Garcon Autumn/Winter 1892
Paul Poiret (1879-1944)
Now onto another legendary designer who I have only recently came across since I started university and after doing some reading. Paul Poiret, an artistic personality who was the polar opposite to Rei Kawakubo and who founded his brand almost 66 years before her, was a designer of haute couture in the early 1900's. However, arguably some may even say the two designers were more similar than you would think as they both took risks towards creating a modern era of fashion. Poiret's work was extremely expressive and he was even known to create one of the first corset free dresses using his skills taught by Jacques Doucet, prior to the opening of his fashion boutique. Creating even more fashion statements in the early 1900's, Poiret designed many exotic multicultural garments such as Turkish inspired harem pants, turbans, kimonos and lampshade tunics to open the doors of fashion to a new set of inventive silhouettes and shapes.
Fancy Dress Costume 1911
Paul Poiret, 1911. Fancy dress costume on showcase at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées" 1913 naturalistic Grecian- Roman inspired dress
Poiret was known for his magnificent theatrical costume parties and his most famous one was named 'A Thousand and Second Night' which took place in the garden of his atelier on June 24, 1911. However, although the parties were a credit to Poiret's imagination, the theme for this party was arguably inspired by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes production of 'Schéhérazade' from 'One Thousand and One Nights created by designer, Léon Bakst. Poiret was known to defend himself against this accusation but there are many similarities between the structure of the harem pants and the bejewelled silhouettes seen in his 1911 garment and the ones worn by the dancers in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the year, 1910. Whether he just used Bakst's work as inspiration or actually came up with the garment idea himself, will be a mystery unsolved.
The costume featured in this post called 'Fancy Dress Costume 1911' was an actual garment worn at Poiret's Russian inspired and self-promoting party. Maybe you can also see the resemblance.
Sergie Diaghilev's Ballets Russes 1910 production of Schéhérazade, with costumes by Léon Bakst
Lubov Tchernicheva
Vaslav Nijinsky
Poiret's main objective was to create fashion in an artistic way and he famously stated, "When I put my signature on a dress, I regard myself as the creator of a work of art".
Although his haute couture salon went bankrupt in 1929 post World War 1, to this day he still remains one of the most influential couturiers in history and some have even suggested that he was the 20th century Picasso of the fashion world.
