October 4, 2026 |
Imagine a Halloween pumpkin made in raw denim and worn as a dress, red fabric swirling behind its jagged teeth and the whole thing topped off with a white padded crown. This was the first look out at Comme des Garçons. “When royal life and everyday life become one,” said Rei Kawakubo by way of explanation. Denim wasn’t the only simple fabric she gave the royal treatment for this collection. One dress, with huge curving hips, could have been fashioned from a check bistro tablecloth. Striped ticking was quilted into ribs, then draped across the body as an asymmetric top and matching skirt, underneath compacted red tulle spilled out like guts. Slashes of red – hair, fringe and coils of fabric, burst from several outfits, lending a sense of regicide to the royal theme.
A plastic white ribcage encased one dress of balled-up red polkadots. Quilted poplin pieces were jigsawed into abstractions of frock coats. Kingly brocade burst from beneath beige corduroy, like meditations on rich and poor, guts and glory. The finale returned to denim but Kawakubo ditched the crowns (regime change?), replacing them with golden domes atop wide sculptural skirts and denim trousers that spilled into a train. Grand designs.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
