Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Blood and Roses, spring/summer 2015; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo
for Comme des Garçons
Body Meets Dress–Dress Meets
Body, spring/summer 1997; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Blue Witch, spring/summer 2016; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons 18th Century Punk, autumn/winter 2016–17; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Blue Witch, spring/summer 2016; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body, spring/summer 1997.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons The Infinity of Tailoring, autumn/winter 2013–14; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons. Photograph by © Collier Schorr; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Inside Decoration, autumn/winter 2010–11; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Craig McDean; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Cubisme, spring/summer 2007; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Craig McDean; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons 18th Century Punk, autumn/winter 2016–17; Courtesy of Comme des Garçons.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons Not Making Clothing, spring/summer 2014.
Photograph by © Paolo Roversi; Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dear Shaded Viewers,
I was lucky enough to get a preview at the press conference for the Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between which will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute opening May 4 through September 4. The exhibition will examine Kawakubo’s fascination with the space between boundaries.
Conde Nast is the sponsor for The Costume Institute’s spring 2017 exhibition which has more than 150 designs dating from Kawakubo’s first Paris runway show in 1981 to her most recent creations. The exhibition will be organized thematically – based on dualities such as male/female, past/present and East/West – rather than chronologically. Not a traditional retrospective, this thematic exhibition will be The Costume Institute’s first monographic show on a living designer since the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition in 1983.
Rei Kawakubo said, “I have always pursued a new way of thinking about design…by denying established values, conventions, and what is generally accepted as the norm. And the modes of expression that have always been most important to me are fusion…imbalance… unfinished… elimination…and absence of intent.”
The exhibition is curated by Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, who collaborated on the exhibition design with Rei Kawakubo. Lighting for the exhibition is created by Thierry Dreyfus @ Eyesight Group. The design for the 2017 Costume Institute Benefit will be created by Nathan Crowley with Raul Avila, who has produced the Benefit décor since 2007.
A publication, authored by Andrew Bolton and designed by Fabien Baron, will accompany the exhibition. It will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.
Exhibition Dates:
May 4—September 4, 2017
Member Previews: May 2–May 3, 2017
Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, Floor 2
Diane Pernet
A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.
