“Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, ‘The King’s in council,” here they always said. “The Emperor’s in his dressing room.’” That’s the start of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Emperor’s New Clothes. And we can relate, absolutely – who wouldn’t rather be pulling together an ensemble than planning budgets or parades of cutting ribbons like the poor Queen has to? The queen of Paris fashion is Rei Kawakubo, and her spring Comme des Garçons collection was inspired by the Anderson fairytale – resulting in a parade of fantastic plastic transparent garments, just like the infamous imperial togs. Although these ones do actually exist. They’re definitely worth missing official functions for, too.
