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Clothes, You Say? Is That Something People WEAR?
By Dana Thomas
Photos by Dana Thomas
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Paris, Marc 18, 2001/ FWD/ --- Is Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons a true fashion genius,
or is she just making saps of us?
Hard to say after last night's Fall-Winter 2001-2002 womenswear show at the Salle Wagram,
long one of the most coveted tickets during Fashion Week.
And there were few of those tickets
to go around this time: Chairs were set up in only one-half of the immense balcony-framed
room, though Comme des Garcons flacks told a dozen editors there weren't any more chairs.
Message to the PR office: Get more chairs.
Then came the clothes. Kawakubo is considered "avant garde," which usually means strange.
When avant garde is good, it can be truly prescient.
And sometimes that's what Kawakubo shows.
But last night you got the feeling she was doing "strange" just for the sake of it, as if she
were mocking the entire fashion industry and its insatiable desire for new new new.
What's more, what she did has already been done by John Galliano for his own house and
for Christian Dior in recent seasons, and Galliano was taken to task for it.
For example, Kawakubo showed deconstructed satin and lace slips, hanging askew on the body
as if shredded or torn off in sexual tussle. Very Galliano.
But then Kawakubo corseted them
with gigantic bras, the cups empty and violently scrunched up, and cinched them with black
leather weightlifter belts embossed with the words "Comme des Garcons."
The whole thing reeked misogyny, and was boring at that.
Then came the deconstructed motorcycle leather, very much like last season's Jean Paul
Gaultier -- and for which he was taken to task (by some) as well.
There were jackets that were too long or too short, or with hanging long straps, or with
exaggerated hems done as the jacket was tied around the waist.
But the weirdest things of
all were the motorcross leather bustles strapped around the hips with a huge circle cut
out of the middle.
That was a joke, right?
A few relatively normal pieces included sharp square-shouldered pantsuits, with bands of
skin-revealing tulle across the midriffs and knees, and a frock coat with a polka-dot tulle
peplum.
But those were flickers of sanity in an otherwise cynical collection.
Perhaps Kawakubo
should move into couture, because the last thing you can call this collection is
"ready-to-wear."
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