Photo: Marcio Madeira / FirstView.com
PARIS, June 25, 2010

Rei Kawakubo's macabre show for Comme des Garçons used one theme—the skull. She combined the motif with a black and white checkerboard pattern, then used that graphic combination in many shapes and sizes: in a traditional memento mori engraving printed on jackets, as photographic multiples printed on shirts, or cartoonishly exaggerated into floaty little alien heads. It was like she was creating a new floral.

Skulls were cut out of shoes and painted onto the back of the models' heads. And even as she abstracted it onto demure fifties-style full skirts and fitted jackets, she never downplayed the power of the subject. It was hard not be reminded of Alexander McQueen's final menswear show, with its images of piles of skulls, and some of that darker element was here. A black leather jacket cut into lattice over a black and white striped shirt created an effect like prison bars. And the only color Kawakubo used was blood red.

Rai Kawakubo has an affinity for the punk aesthetic. In the '80s her all black palette, was called 'Hiroshima chic'. Commes des Garcons was anti-fashion. Commes des Garcons caused an uproar on the runways of Paris in the '80s attacking the established notions of Beauty. Deconstructed garments, with asymmetrical shape, frayed edges, with holes etc. In 1984 this was very radical; it is easy to forget today, with the jaded attitude, that this dark punk like aesthetic had so much impact, on its initial phase.

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Joel Nikolaou