Like Some Boys
There's a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this season honoring the work of Rei Kawakubo, the designer behind Comme des Garçons. Every year, the Costume Institute premiers a new themed exhibition, kicked off by The Met Gala (a celebrity fundraiser that keeps the Institute funded but happens to be the fashion event of the year). The costume exhibitions are by far my favorite thing to see at the Met!
I won't say every year is incredible, but this one is definitely going to be a great one! Rei has been pushing the fashion industry forward for almost 50 years now. Her runway collections aren't really wearable, they're more like art-- like Alexander McQueen's work. She pads dresses to disfigure the body, stitches flat garments out of felt like paper doll clothes, and mashes up concepts in a very literal way.
It's weird. It's kind of off-putting... But on a whole, it challenges how we perceive fashion.
And then she boils those concepts down into wearable clothing! I love Comme des Garçons because you can see the process in the clothes. You can see the initial concept (the weird and the challenging) and then see how it applies to life. Plus, it's all made by hand. Quality is key!
Rei has a few different brands within Comme des Garçons. Play is her accessible clothing line. Everyone know it for the heart shaped logo with the cartoon eyes. You see it on sneakers and striped tees and a few larger retailers carry it. This bomber jacket is from her Shirt Boys line. A playful, mid-range collection. I had to get a size medium (I usually wear small). Com me des Garçons is based in Japan, so pretty much everything is cut smaller than American clothing.
The shirt and the jacket are courtesy of Farfetch! They carry the Comme des Garçons labels and I did an interview with them recently about why I love Rei and her designs.
Check it out here and show some love!
If you have a chance to check out the exhibition at the Met, let me know what you think! I can't wait to see it!
P.S. Comme des Garçons is French for "like some boys". ;)
**This post is in partnership with Farfetch. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.