""Love me, please love me." It's not a refrain you anticipate hearing at a Comme des Garçons show, Rei Kawakubo perhaps being one of the most unloveable designers working in fashion right now. Now, that's distinct from "least loved". Kawakubo is adored, but as a self-declared and much-demonstrated punk, she makes no overtures or compromises to engender universal affection with her clothes. They're difficult, obstinate, unreasonable in their undeniable genius."
"So Kawakubo reinforced her men. The most overt expression was the rigid masks by Shin Murayama, part American football helmet, part Hannibal Lecter face cage - either to repel outside forces, or muzzle the monster within. And the clothes too had a feel of self-preservation, a trench fused into an impenetrable dress with crossing buttoned panels over the chest, contrasting with the vulnerability of sliced-out panels, chinks in their sartorial armours opening on fragile lace or bared flesh."
Rei Kawakubo presented a menswear collection that juxtaposed defensive armor and delicate exposure, using rigid masks, trench-like dresses and sliced panels to explore self-preservation and vulnerability. Crooning love songs and a 1966 Michel Polnareff track set a surreal, reverberant tone that pointed toward positivity and escape from a cultural 'black hole.' Shin Murayama's helmet-like face cages served as both defense and restraint, while garments fused trench details with impenetrable coverings interrupted by lace and bared flesh. The season emphasized protective silhouettes echoed across influential shows, but centered less on trend and more on conceptual responses to contemporary unease.
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