Rei Kawakubo@People

Rei Kawakubo (川久保 玲, Rei Kawakubo born 1942-10-11 in Tokyo) is a Japanese fashion designer, founder of Comme des Garçons.

the designer behind the 'comme des garcons' label,
kawakubo, studied philosophy at keio university in her
native tokyo.
untrained as a fashion designer, but having studied
fine arts and literature, she conveys her ideas verbally to
her patternmakers.
after graduation kawakubo worked in a textile company
and began working as a freelance stylist in 1967.
she started this japanese label in 1969 and founded the
comme des garcons company in 1973.
starting out with women's clothes, kawakubo added a men's
line in 1978.
for many, kawakubo's arrival in the west, with the first paris
presentation of her collection in 1981, was something of a shock.
she presented clothes the challenged accepted conventions.
the collection was dubbed 'hiroshima chic' for its use of dark
colors, in particular black, which was not popular at the time.

kawakubo's clothes are architectonic or sculptural,
concentrating on structure rather than surface.
this style refused to obey accepted notions of silhouette
and bodyline to create dramatic and innovative designs :
upside-down pockets, de-emphasized shoulders
and extra-long sleeves...
holes in sweaters become gashes in the bodices of
evening dresses. jackets are dismantled and turned
inside-out or put together in new ways.
the inside of a cardigan becomes the outside with the
bumpy texture of knitted roses close to the body.

kawakubo won the mainichi fashion grand prize in 1983
and was honored by the fashion institute of technology
in 1987 as one of the leading women in 20th-century design.

while kawakubo is best known for her fashion design,
or 'clothes-making' as she would probably prefer to call it,
her artistic vision encompasses many other areas of design,
from graphics to packaging,
to costume and exhibition design, to furniture,
and to the architecture of her retail spaces.
her designs have inspired many new designers like e.g.the
belgian martin margiela and ann demeulemeester,
as well as austrian designer helmut lang.