Ensemble

Designer Rei Kawakubo Japanese

spring/summer 2015

Not on view

One of the most influential fashion designers today, Rei Kawakubo generally eschews historicism, traditionalism, and trends, instead working relentlessly to expand on her distinctive explorations of shape and construction—an achievement made all the more impressive by her tendency to work in monochrome. Her collections prioritize form over surface and have regularly featured so much black that when she flooded the runway with an equal proportion of red in 1988, she was compelled to title the collection “Red Is Black,” in a nod to the fashionable ubiquity of her palette. More recently, the designer reprised her use of red in a monochromatic collection titled “Blood and Roses.” This ensemble—an abstraction of shapes, materials, and surfaces that draws powerfully on the color’s emotional associations and potency—is unusual in its subtle allusion to the eighteenth-century panniered silhouette.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Exhibition History

Title: Ensemble
Design House: Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969)
Designer: Rei Kawakubo (Japanese, born 1942)
Date: spring/summer 2015
Culture: Japanese
Medium: (a) wool, nylon, polyester, cotton (b) plastic (polyurethane), polyester, cotton (c) polyester, cotton, (d, e) cotton, synthetic fiber, and (e, f) plastic (polyvinyl chloride)
Credit Line: Catharine Breyer Van Bomel Foundation Fund, 2015
Object Number: 2015.268a–g
Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.

Suit, Comme des Garçons Japanese, linen, French — Suit
Comme des Garçons
1985–95

Shirt, Comme des Garçons Japanese, cotton, Japanese — Shirt
Comme des Garçons
ca. 1990

Sweater, Comme des Garçons Japanese, linen, Japanese — Sweater
Comme des Garçons
1984–87

Ensemble, Comme des Garçons Japanese, linen, synthetic, leather, mother-of-pearl, Japanese — Ensemble
Comme des Garçons
Rei Kawakubo
spring/summer 1985

Tunic, Comme des Garçons Japanese, wool, cotton, synthetic, Japanese — Tunic
Comme des Garçons
Rei Kawakubo
ca. 1992

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.