Each season, it’s routine to enter a Comme des Garçons show and leave with your mind altered. Time again, Rei Kawakubo’s awe-inspiring collections take fashion to otherworldly realms. Yet the power of her latest Homme Plus outing was in the simplicity of the clothes. “White is symbolic of prayer,” wrote the designer in her brief show notes, as she charged forward with a slew of elongated cream wooly blazers with matching shorts, ballooned trousers and knife-pleated skirts.
Her cast came with choppy, Warhol bobs and straw-like wigs that fell just above the shoulder, and were clad in a series of shrunken suit jackets that are set to delight loyal Comme shoppers thanks to their subtle flourishes. Like a pinstripe jacket, for instance, distorted at the chest to expose a flash of a silver shirt from beneath. Or the hybridisation of a blazer and a waistcoat to envision a singular jacket.
Many silhouettes were outlined by trails of pearl buttons, with Kawakubo also turning a series of suit jackets inside out so their white linings became ghostly echoes of classic suits. She settled on the title ‘Spiritual World’ for the collection: fitting for a designer whose work often reaches transcendental heights.
Photography courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
