Comme Des Garcons Check Dress

Comme des Garçons is one of the world’s most innovative and trailblazing fashion brands, helmed by its inimitable founder, Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942), who has a penchant for breaking fashion and cultural norms. The only living designer apart from Yves Saint Laurent to have a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Kawakubo has permanently changed fashion with designs that challenge traditional ideas of beauty with a creative and transgressive exuberance.

After studying art and literature at Keio University in Tokyo, Kawakubo worked as a freelance stylist before establishing her own label in 1969. Comme des Garçons — which is also known as CDG — officially launched in 1973, and Kawakubo opened her first store in Tokyo three years later. She has since been instrumental in pioneering many concepts now familiar in contemporary fashion.

One of Kawakubo's most iconic moves was her introduction of androgynous styles (Comme des Garçons means “like the boys” in French) with asymmetrical, twisted silhouettes that envelope the body. While she told the New York Times that the “basics of clothing lie in men’s fashion,” Kawakubo believes in the concept of humanness in clothes (she titled her spring 1995 show “Transcending Gender”).

In the 1970s, when color-blocking was the norm, Kawakubo stuck to her monochromatic color palette dominated by shades of black with uncompromising dedication, although with evocative and powerful use of red and white.

Comme des Garçons is also known for an often shocking take on fashion. Deconstructed tailoring, violently slashed fabric and sculptural shapes are some themes that run through the brand’s collections, but Kawakubo never explains the meaning of her conceptual pieces, which fall somewhere between art and fashion.

Designer Junya Watanabe, who worked alongside Kawakubo for nearly a decade, operates an atelier based within the Tokyo headquarters of Comme des Garçons, and he established a line under Kawakubo's label in the early 1990s. Since then, even though the brand has launched additional lines and more commercial offshoots like PLAY, known by the iconic heart motif with eyes, the premier men’s line Homme Plus and the multilabel Dover Street Market that opened in 2004, the essence of Comme des Garçons remains Kawakubo’s otherworldly and undefinable creations, which are impossible to ignore.

Find vintage Comme des Garçons shirts, jackets, day dresses and other clothing on 1stDibs.

Luxurious and versatile, designer day dresses are as well suited to tea at an upscale hotel as they are to your next garden or rooftop party.

Today’s featherlight unisex day dresses — as well as the vibrant vintage day dresses of the 1950s and ’60s — look quite different from the heavy, fabric-rich de rigueur garments of the Victorian era. In the late 19th century, a woman of a certain standing might have multiple dresses to wear throughout the day: specifically, one or two for the daytime and one for the evening. For example, a long-sleeve silk dress with a prominently flared back and a round collar of gold beaded lace that hugs the neck would be suitable for stepping out during the day, while a velvet gown trimmed in silk embroidery but overall comparatively informal in appearance would be worn for afternoon tea at home. At night, a silk velvet evening dress could feature natural world motifs such as butterflies (a characteristic of Art Nouveau design) and have short sleeves adorned with lace and ruffles and a scooped neckline — the perfect attire for the theater.

During the 1920s, after all the chores were done, a woman would change from her housework clothing into a more fashionable day dress to run her errands or socialize. Some 1920s day dresses were brightly colored and featured bold patterns — a cotton dress with a dazzling floral print, perhaps, or, in the case of the more venturesome Art Deco apparel sold in high-end couture fashion boutiques of the era, semi-sheer silk garments embellished with three-dimensional beadwork or rich metallic gold lamé.

Today, a closet full of casual vintage day dresses is a must-have. Whether you opt for black, crimson or beige, day dresses bring an element of glamour to your next appointment, and in the summer, who doesn’t love a wonderfully simple, lightweight day dress cut in cotton and linen?

Because different fashion designers of every decade have offered their own take on the widely loved day dress, you’ll be able to find a variety of vintage and designer day dresses on 1stDibs. Search by creator to find enduring designs by the likes of Emilio Pucci, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, or browse by period to uncover a scintillating collection of cotton and satin patterned dresses of the 1950s and ’60s.