Comme des Garçons Art of the In-Between.
The most expected exhibition of the year at the Met Museum in New York
Finally, here we are. The long-awaited exhibition on Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons at the Met in New York is no longer a dream but a reality, and it will be a success – as has always occurred for such important events. Embracing a period of time that goes from the beginning of the great Japanese designer’s career, through the early eighties, up until today, the exhibition aims at reflecting on the accomplishments of the brand, which represents the quintessence of conceptual realization in the world of fashion. The pieces on display are approximately 150, and it is seemingly unrealistic that those creations, which have truly constituted a piece of fashion history – so much so as to become iconic and enter the collective imagination – can be admired, once again. The exhibition is based on the study of the boundaries between good and bad, pleasant and disturbing, fashion and anti-fashion, design and not design, model and multiple. Yet, this does not suffice because within Kawakubo’s fashion philosophy the concepts of object and subject, then and now and, above all, clothes and not clothes are fundamental. During her entire career, she has managed to destroy the imaginary walls between these dualisms, exposing artificiality and arbitrariness. What is “beautiful” is not for everyone. What is giving for one person is not for another. A simple concept, but one that is in juxtaposition with the fashion system, forever in search of absolute beauty. Absolute beauty does not exist, is what Kawakubo seems to be telling us. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, again, sometimes what is “ugly” can become “beautiful” when viewed in the correct manner. Thank you Madame Kawakubo.
From May 4th to September 4th, The Met Fith Avenue, New York.
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons , ph.© Paolo Roversi courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons , Body Meets Dress-Dress Meet Body, spring/summer 1997 coutesy of Comme des Garçons, ph.© Paolo Roversi courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art