Rei Kawakubo gave show, in the true sense of the word, staging one of the most impactful collections of the whole Paris fashion week.
Everything, in the clothes in the Spring Summer 2020, is designed for the limelight and for the luminous circle that, from the bull's eye, falls on the stage and illuminates the actors. The fabrics, consistent and shiny, the colors, so intense, the embroideries and the 3D applications. But even the creative process that led to this phenomenal collection has its roots in theater.
Kawakubo currently collaborates with the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, the first woman in history to stage a reinterpretation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando at the Vienna State Opera in December. Thus it is rather intuitive to identify the connection between Comme les garçons collection and the studies that Kawakubo is carrying out so as to be able to create the perfect stage costumes for the show. The Elizabethan era is the age at which the designer draws heavily, yet the end result is not as cloying as one might expect, indeed. It is not surprising, however, because Kawakubo has an extraordinary sensitivity for the avant-garde, and also because her personal contribution is always absolutely recognizable in any collection. This is what we are dealing with: understanding ourselves and expressing ourselves. Like Orlando.
slide to watch the looks:
Words by Giulia Greco