CHINAEUROPE AFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Life\Fashion

Between worlds of taste and recognition

By Sonia Altshuler | China Daily Asia | Updated: 2017-05-25 16:16

Between worlds of taste and recognition

Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons [Photo/Courtesy of Comme des Garçons]

Miuccia Prada is candid about Kawakubo's economically discreet impact on global fashion culture. "I always say 'Thank God Rei doesn't want to be commercial'," Prada said in a 2016 interview with 10 Magazine. "Otherwise, we would all be dead."

It's precisely Kawakubo's market-insensitive approach that defines her singularity. "If, as Andy Warhol proposed, 'Business art is the step after art,' Rei is its fashion manifestation," remarked Bolton. "It's within this elastic zone between fashion and commerce that Rei's 'art of the in-between' occupies and most powerfully expresses itself."

The closest Kawakubo ever came to outright commerciality was collaborating with Swedish retail giant H&M in 2008. "I have always been interested, as an independent businesswoman, in the balance between creation, which is the core value of Comme des Garçons, and good business, which comes a close second," Kawakubo told this reporter that year. "Comme des Garçons with H&M is the epitome of this challenge."

Margareta van den Bosch, creative director at H&M (which is sponsoring the exhibition, along with Apple, Farfetch and Valentino) said that Kawakubo had been atop their wishlist for design collaborators from the start. "She's always been at the forefront, experimenting with garments, never following any rules. We have tremendous respect for Kawakubo's fashion philosophy, which questions the entire fashion world's ingrained patterns."

BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US