Fashion designer Rei Kawakubo was born on October 11, 1942, in Tokyo. She is the founder of COMME des GARÇONS. She attended Keio University from kindergarten and graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, and joined Asahi Kasei's advertising department. She left after three years to become a freelance stylist. Unable to find clothing that matched the image for an advertising photo shoot, she decided to make her own. From there, she began working in the entire process, from stylist to designer, patternmaker, and seamstress. In 1969, she began manufacturing and selling women's clothing under the brand name "COMME des GARÇONS," which means "like a boy" in French. In 1973, she founded COMME des GARÇONS Co., Ltd., and held her first show in Tokyo in 1975. In 1981, she made her first appearance at the Paris Collection. The following year, her "black holey knitwear" was called the "shock of black" and shook the fashion world. Since then, she has launched spin-off lines such as "COMME des GARÇONS HOMME PLUS," "COMME des GARÇONS SHIRT," "COMME des GARÇONS COMME des GARÇONS," and "PLAY COMME des GARÇONS." The recent "COMME des GARÇONS 14SS" show at Paris Fashion Week drew attention with its theme of "clothes that aren't clothes." She rarely responds to media interviews and never appears at the end of the runway show. In her personal life, she married Adrian Joffe, a British man who is currently president of Comme des Garçons International, in 1992.