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Rei Kawakubo Shoes

Japanese, b. 1942

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. 

Perhaps no designer better embodies fashion cool than Kawakubo. And when she makes industry veterans lose their cool, well, that’s a fashion moment. 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 — her designs for widely loved vintage Comme des Garçons dresses, shirts and other clothing and accessories 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. For Kawakubo, the body is a mere support, an easel that holds the canvas on which she exercises her formidable creative energy in a perpetual quest to invent a brave new world using fabric, or its equivalent, as her brushstroke. Today's enthusiasts of 1990s fashion revere Kawakubo for her progressive pink plaid grunge dresses, velvet jackets and nylon skirts of the era, which resembled little else back then. They were modeled by the likes of Naomi Campbell and other luminaries of the industry. 

Even though the brand has over the years worked with other innovative designers such as Tao Kurihara and Junya Watanabe and has launched 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 Rei Kawakubo shirts, jackets, day dresses and other clothing on 1stDibs.

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Designer: Rei Kawakubo
Comme Des Garcons Homme Plus Intrecciato Formal Shoes
By Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons
Located in Tương Mai Ward, Hoang Mai District
Season unknown, the shoes has a similar pattern to Bottega Veneta's infamous Intrecciato pattern Size: 43, fits 44. Condition: 8/10, worn insole. Feels free to message me with any...
Category

2010s French Rei Kawakubo Shoes

Comme des Garcons CDG Man Colour Block Sneakers
By Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons
Located in Paris, FR
CDG Comme des Garcons man sneakers boots featuring grey, beige and green suede patchwork lace-up sneakers, a round toe, a lace-up front fastening...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Japanese Rei Kawakubo Shoes

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Rei Kawakubo shoes for sale on 1stDibs.

Find an extraordinary range of authentic Rei Kawakubo shoes available on 1stDibs. Customers who are interested in this designer might also find the work of Comme des Garçons, Robert Clergerie, and Charles Jourdan appealing. On 1stDibs, find haute couture, vintage and designer Rei Kawakubo shoes from top boutiques around the world. Rei Kawakubo shoes prices can differ depending upon time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $225 and tops out at $288, while the average work can sell for $278.

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