covers

lou doillon photographed by serge leblon for vogue turkey, november 2013.

lily mcmenamy in come des garçons photographed by juergen teller for system #2

magda laguinge photographed by sofia sanchez & maruo mongiello & styled by sissy vian for flair, november 2013

david beckham photographed by steven klein for arena homme +, fall/winter 2013

(magazine is covered by a plastic film)

"picasso" by tom unger for 032c 25, winter 2013/2014 

(cover 2/2 with a limited edition of 300)

adult magazine no. 1

fashion is only the right now

man i love rei kawakubo....
the wall street journal talked to her recently:
i don't feel too excited about fashion today, more fearful that people don't necessarily want or need strong new clothes, that there are not enough of us believing in the same thing, that there is a kind of burnout, that people want cheap fast clothes and are happy to look like everyone else, that the flame of creation has gone a bit cold, that enthusiasm and passionate anger for change and rattling the status quo is weakening. but what i still love about it is that playing the fool, acting silly, showing off, being a celebrity designer are all integral and necessary parts of the fashion business. and creation excites me, because without creation there can be no progress.
the process of working with the aim of finding something new is really tough. it has always been tough. it's extremely difficult to create in order to cause people to feel something, in order that people feel they are given something. it's natural that the pressure is intense if this is your aim.
fashion is something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction the meaning of it is born. without the wearing of it, it has no meaning, unlike a piece of art. it is fashion because people want to buy it now, because they want to wear it now, today. fashion is only the right now.
read the full article here.

scandal mongers

comme des garçons president adrian joffe (and husband of rei kawakubo) claims wwd got their facts wrong and is calling them out on it. in an interview with hypebeast, joffe had the following to say:

he denies that rei hates young designers:
i believe you mean the interview that was published from the establishment rag known as wwd. we were rather upset if not shocked by the way they twisted the words of rei and made it sound like she was dismissive of young designers in general. everyone knows that rei respects enormously all young designers that work hard and believe in creation. COMME des GARÇONS are constantly on the lookout for creative talent to have in our multi mark shops, and anyone who knows dover street market london will know we have many young designers there. she was merely making the comment about a lot of young people in general these days, not just in fashion, as they hope and expect for success too quickly and are too impatient. in her time, it took years before she was really able to make a proper living at making clothes. however, she knows that the times are very different now and she knows how hard it is. she is in no way dismissive of young designers, as she only wants to encourage them to be strong and creative and follow their own vision. sharing spaces with people like them is the fundamental idea behind dover street market london and i.t beijing market.

on rei being secretive and the company being for sale:
rei did at least ten or fifteen interviews in 2010 alone. we did five in beijing just last week, even though wwd falsely called their particular one "rare". what nonsense! she is not so much secretive as simply unwilling to talk about her private life and she doesn't like being photographed. she basically doesn't trust journalists because they often twist what she says and turn it around to make their point. she has very often been deceived by journalists in this way. the scandal mongering wwd article of last week is a case in point. not only did they dare to publish a totally unauthorized photo of rei, they also twisted many of her own words, or taking them out of context, to make them sound revelatory when they were not. for example, they made it sounds the COMME des GARÇONS is for sale, which it totally isn't. they called my 100% joke about waiting for an offer, a "half joke".

hypebeast also asked joffe the following:
it is known that japanese designers such as herself were not happy to be branded as the "japanese" back in the 1980s. can you explain why this was the case? and also, what is the reason behind the fascinations of death, shapes and black amongst the japanese designers?
his reply?
we cannot answer questions about the so-called "japanese designers". it was a mere accident that rei was born in japan.

you can read the full interview here.

j'adore rei!

rei kawakubo opened a store in china in partnership with i.t. limited - her hong kong based retail partner. the 20,000 square foot store includes polka dot columns & a life size elephant sculpture. along with her own lines the store carries labels maison martin margiela, rick owens, dior homme, ann demeulemeester & hussein chalayan but no young designers. kawakubo says her "motivation has always been to create something new, something that didn't exist before" and said she is interested in only "very few" young designers and thinks that most of them aren't that good. "there are few people who, like us, have the values and the way of thinking to really try hard. they lack discipline. and it's not just fashion. i think ... [young people] get satisfied too easily. they're not strict enough with themselves. they're too soft on themselves." doing press for the store opening a reporter asked about her retirement and was met with complete silence!  ah, old school!

rei love

rei kawakubo has designed a limited edition barbie wearing a photo-style, print graphic dress that forms part of 'jingle flowers', the comme des garçons 'new nonsense' christmas range. already available in tokyo last week, she will be up for sale at all comme des garçons shops for around $340. love the hair - so rei!