March 9, 2025 |
Was she railing against Lord Business? For AW25, Rei Kawakubo took traditional businesswear and mangled and distorted it – a comment, perhaps, on how corporate agendas can distort cultures (just look at all those billionaires bending the knee to Trump). The designer didn’t mention him, or Elon or Arnault or Bezos, but did release a statement. “Smaller is stronger. Small can be mighty,” she said.
Her own approach to business is to stay independent, because that’s the only way freedom – her most prized possessions can be guaranteed. Her husband Adrian Joffe expanded in the statement, “She thinks we’re a little bit tired of big business, big culture, and global systems. What about the small things that happen over all continents, everywhere – aren’t they global, that’s not big?”
If business suits are a sign of order and conformity, in Kawakubo’s hands they became uncontrollable, chaotic, disruptive. A rippling column of masculine pinstripe, a houndstooth jump suits of jutting angular distortions, or bulbous Prince of Wales check dress and matching jacket were masterpieces of complex pattern cutting. These suits were worn with conjoined felt trilby hats (two crowns, one hat) with fringed or swagged brims. Kawakubo then introduced feminine dresses, layered Russians doll-style on top of each other in one piece from small to large. They were worn with great loberster claw velvet gloves.
Viewed from the side there was a voluptuousness to many of the pieces, which swelled at the bust, belly and hips, as if the silhouette was based on ancient fertility symbols. It summed up the trajectory of the show from a broken corrupted masculinity into the divine feminine.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
