Paris Fashion Week has surprised with the return of historical silhouettes, not only recent decades but times much, much further in the rear-view mirror.
So what to make of Rei Kawakubo’s grandiose silhouettes at Comme des Garçons, vaguely reminiscent of La Belle Époque and from another planet at the same time?
The impact of her latest collection crept up on you as you realized how gifted she is with colors, fabric mixing, and the ability to express femininity, strength and hope with the most improbable, extreme shapes.
Being handed a piece of paper printed with the designer’s deep thoughts before the show felt like a gift and also a curse, because her words invariably ring true, but the design expression is not always linear.
“Recently, we feel that big business, big culture, global systems, world structures maybe are not so great after all,” she wrote. “There is also strong value in small. Small can be mighty.”
There was nothing small about any of these stiff, sculpted outfits, variously bulging, dimpled, crimped, knotted or jutting.
Kawakubo seemed to subvert the signpost of corporate life with the undulating structure in navy pinstripes that opened the display: Imagine if a business suit had swallowed a string quartet.
More ensembles tailored in this cubist style followed, in houndstooth, Prince of Wales check and gray flannel, one featuring swollen pants with craters in lieu of pockets.
Pinstripes recurred as a vest exploding off the body thanks to its lining of dense white ruffles, and as a dress garlanded with strips of wadding-backed fabric. Then came the tartans, colorful satins and velvets festooned with ruffles, bows or silk flowers, all layered and jumbled to dazzling effect.
By the time the finale look trundled out on her narrow, raised plywood runway – a sublime, abstract take on the tuxedo with a long, fluffy train – many were dreaming of seeing these looks added to the hit exhibition currently on at the Louvre, which pairs contemporary fashions and accessories with historical objects in its vast decorative arts department.
To be sure, Comme des Garçons remains a small player in today’s fashion landscape, but Kawakubo is usually the mighty one that sticks her neck out the furthest, and touches your heart.
