Giving thanks today for a rare public sighting of the lesser spotted Rei Kawakubo who, this morning, joined Anna Wintour, Carrie Rebora Barratt and curator Andrew Bolton to launch this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition – “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between”. An exhibition that will take place in May and for which we are – sorry to be crude here in the (virtual) presence of Rei – pant-wetting excited for. Kawakubo is one of those designers that you can truthfully say that whole, repeated thing about changing the course of fashion forever. Because she did, and continues to do so – as evidenced by a brilliant AW17 collection this weekend. “Rei has blurred the art-fashion divide with creations that often look like sculptures, challenging us to think anew about fashion’s place in contemporary culture,” said Barratt, deputy director of the Metropolitan Museum. “Our thematic show will examine the way in which Rei’s work pushes the boundaries of dress design, challenges traditional notions of beauty and creates a new aesthetic vocabulary.” And, we got a few little hints of what to expect – namely, a maze of geometric shapes containing 150 mannequins wearing her designs from over the years and a focus on moments of in between – Fashion/Antifashion, Design/Not Design, Model/Multiple, Then/Now, High/Low, Self/Other, Object/Subject and Clothes/Not Clothes. Stay tuned.
