Dress

Designer Rei Kawakubo Japanese

fall/winter 1984–85

Not on view

Since founding Comme des Garçons ("like some boys") in 1969, the Tokyo-based designer Rei Kawakubo has consistently defined and redefined the aesthetics of her time. Collection after collection, she upends conventional notions of beauty and disrupts accepted characteristics of the fashionable body. This ensemble from Kawakubo’s "Twist, Silk + Jersey, Knits (Patchworks)" collection exemplifies the designer’s work after 1979, when she abandoned her previous references and decided to “start from zero,” or to create clothes never seen before in fashion. The collection featured outsized silhouettes and asymmetrical, wrapped construction. This ensemble is one of a series made of patchworked silken fabric draped and tied around the body.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Title: Dress
Design House: Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969)
Designer: Rei Kawakubo (Japanese, born 1942)
Date: fall/winter 1984–85
Culture: Japanese
Medium: rayon
Credit Line: Purchase, Funds from various donors, by exchange, 2018
Object Number: 2018.127
Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

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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
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Sweater, Comme des Garçons Japanese, linen, Japanese — Sweater
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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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