Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between

Gallery views of The Costume Institute's spring 2017 exhibition, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between, curated by Andrew Bolton.

The Costume Institute's spring 2017 exhibition examines the work of Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. The thematic show features approximately 140 examples of Kawakubo's womenswear for Comme des Garçons dating from the early 1980s to her most recent collection.

Beyond her pursuit of "newness," Kawakubo exhibits several other preoccupations of avant-garde modernism. Perhaps the most notable is the tension between originality and reproduction, which is explored in Model/Multiple through the collection Abstract Excellence. Commenting on it at the time, Kawakubo explained: "[My focus was] designing from shapeless, abstract, intangible forms, not taking into account the body. The best item to express the collection is the skirt."

In total, the collection features 34 skirts, several of which are displayed here. Through the conceits of seriality and repetition, the designer created the illusion of uniformity and standardization. However, subtle changes in color, fabric, and shape (the last achieved through slight shifts in the placement and direction of seams) mark each skirt as individual and distinctive. A meditation on variations of a single form, the collection represents a powerful statement on the unstable connection between unique artwork and mass-produced commodity.