Rei Kawakubo: 11 works

'This outfit is typical of the predominantly black collections produced during the early 1980s by Rei Kawakubo.'

'Fashion/Antifashion focuses on Kawakubo's early 1980s collections, which elicited extreme reactions from critics when they were shown in Paris, owing to their repudiation of many prevailing canons of Western fashion. In terms of Kawakubo's aesthetic of "in-betweenness," these works are significant for introducing the concepts of mu (emptiness), expressed through the monochromatic--principally black--color palette, and ma (space), embodied in the outsize, shapeless, loose-fitting garments that create excess space between skin and fabric, body and clothing.'

'Design/Not Design explores Kawakubo's intuitive approach to garment making.'

'East/West Male/Female Child/Adult Self/Other highlights Kawakubo's exploration of hybrid identities that blur the boundaries of conventional definitions of culture, gender, and age.'

'Kawakubo regards her fashions and their environments as a Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art."'

'Abstraction/Representation features Invisible Clothes, which Kawakubo considers "the clearest and most extreme version of Comme des Garçons."'

'At the same time, she has said, "I have no desire to make my own designs into messages addressing the issues of our world."'

'Kawakubo explained, "When the natural movements of dance are repelled and refuted, you get new forms."'

'Early in her career, Kawakubo explained, "I work around the figure, but I am never limited by what the figure has to be."'

'At the time of its making, Kawakubo declared, "I am an adult delinquent to the end."'

'Beyond her pursuit of "newness," Kawakubo exhibits several other preoccupations of avant-garde modernism.'