Comme des Garçons “Art of the In-Between”

Summer Fridays are here! This week, I sketched at the MET costume institute’s new exhibition, Rei Kawakubo/ Comme des Garçons “Art of the In-Between“. Fashion is a source of inspiration, especially when the construction and concept exceeds the expectation of function. When fashion elevates the idea of form and line into something more abstract, I get this tickle in my brain.

Into the Abstract:

” My clothes and the spaces they inhabit are inseparable – they are one and the same. They convey the same vision, the same message and the same sense of values.” -Rei Kawakubo

Design / Not Design:

Rie Kawakubo challenges fashion because she wasn’t taught to be a designer in the traditional sense. Her intuition led her to design before convention.

” I wasn’t limited to the confines of a pattern. Not being educated, not being taught how to design, I was able to visualize in a completely different context. And I still seem able to draw upon the unconventional.”
-Rei Kawakubo

Fashion / Antifashion:

The conversation isn’t always about commercial or not commercial. At the heart of what we do, is design. Taking and pushing direction can coexist.

” I am not protesting against fashion. This is something else, another direction.” -Rei Kawakubo

Model / Multiple:

Drawing on art and product is what I do every day as an artist and designer working in the industry. The Model and the Multiple resonates with me in many ways as I attempt to uncover the difference between observation and consumption. I sketch to understand. Sketching is both observation and consumption. Maybe fashion is also both, Rei Kawakubo is able to blur this distinction. For these sketches I used watercolor and gouache on Moleskin sketchbook paper.

” Fashion is not art. You sell art to one person. Fashion comes in a series and it is a more social phenomenon.” -Rei Kawakubo

Object / Subject:

Are we wearing the dress or is the dress wearing us? Clothing has the ability to transform character. Just ask “Dress for Success”

“I want to rethink the body, so the body and the dress become one.” -Rei Kawakubo

I sketched this one because I love how the proportions completely changes the character of the model in clothing.The figure remains recognizable but the story becomes about shape and color.

Form / Function:

“Personally, I don’t care about function at all… When I hear ‘where could you wear that?’ or ‘it’s not very wearable,’ or ‘who would wear that?’ to me it’s just a sign that someone missed the point.” -Rei Kawakubo

Clothes / Not Clothes:

“If we say ‘these are clothes,’ it’s all very usual, so we said ‘these are not clothes.’ It sounds like Zen dialogue, but it is very simple.” -Rei Kawakubo

Abstraction / Representation:

“Things that have never been seen before have a tendency to be somewhat abstract, but making art is not my intention at all. All my effort is oriented towards giving form to clothes that have never been seen before.” -Rei Kawakubo