COMME DES GARCONS: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Rei Kawakubo, the creative force behind Comme des Garcons is a difficult woman to pin down. She once responded to all the questions in an interview by showing the journalist a simple drawing of a circle. She was in a similarly non-communicative mood after her latest Paris show and declined to offer any explanation for the collection, preferring to let the audience work it out for themselves. She gave us a

clue with the cartoons and video games she projected onto the floor of her show space. The clothes were a madcap mix of fabrics and genre. A typical outfit might have two tailored jackets one pinstripe one flannel layered up and worn with a skirt made from giant squares of fabric of random provenance - cotton stripes, nylon track suit material and a print of 18th century wig designs. Skirts looked like tutus from the front and stretchy bandeaus from the back, the left half of a jacket was worn but not the right and a flat foam cut out of a party dress was fused onto the front of an outfit. So what to make of it all? I’ve thought long and hard about it. I know what I think it is about, but in the spirit of Comme des Garcons I’ll let you fathom it out yourself. Claudia Croft