Ensemble

Designer Rei Kawakubo Japanese

spring/summer 2012

Not on view

The hidden supportive understructures of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century womenswear often inform the work of contemporary designers, who have translated inner layers of shaping into outer ornament. Here, Rei Kawakubo elaborates on the form of an 1880s bustle, originally meant to emphasize one zone of the body, to create a skirt with an entirely new, lobed silhouette. Kawakubo's use of white lace recalls the delicate embellishment of lingerie—a further transformation of the intimate into the conspicuous.

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 2012
Culture: Japanese
Medium: (a) plastic (foam); (b) acrylic, nylon; (c) rayon, cotton/polyester, viscose rayon; (d, e) cotton, plastic (polyurethane)
Credit Line: Gift of Comme des Garçons, in honor of Harold Koda, 2016
Object Number: 2016.297a–e
Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

By Comme des Garçons

By Rei Kawakubo

From the same time and place

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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

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