The exhibition "Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between" opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 4th (through September 4th). The annual Met Gala was also held around the theme of the exhibition, bringing together a host of celebrities for a glamorous event. The exhibition showcases 140 works, the result of Kawakubo's experiments with "in-betweenness" (the space between boundaries), and is divided into nine themes.

Absence/Presence


This section features circular booths, expressing the theme of "nothingness." Zen symbolizes the space, and the "space between" (ma) is evoked through the interplay of the structure. Kawakubo describes her own works as "Gesamtkunstwerk," or "total art," and this concept is reflected in this exhibition.


Design/Not Design


This section explores Kawakubo's intuitive approach to creating clothes. The process typically begins with a single word or abstract image, which she then conveys to her patternmaker. Dresses embody the Zen spirit of "wabi-sabi."


Fashion/Antifashion


In 1979, Kawakubo became dissatisfied with her own collections. Believing she needed to do something more intuitive and powerful, she set out to create something she had never done before. Fashion/Antifashion focuses on Kawakubo's collections from the early 1980s. Her style is characterized by a black base, loose-fitting designs, and the creation of space between the skin and the clothing.


Model/Multiple


As seen in her "Abstract Excellence" collection, Kawakubo has always sought "newness," while also demonstrating an interest in avant-garde modernism. In this Model/Multiple section, you can enjoy works that show her designs beginning with intangible, abstract, and vague elements.


High/Low


This section explores the relationship between "elite" and "pop culture." Ensembles from the "Motorbike Ballerina" collection, described as "Harley-Davidson in love with Margot Fontaine," attempt to fuse high culture and subculture.


Then/Now


The experiments in "In Betweenness" were connected to the ever-evolving act of clarifying modernism. This section explores this idea, and Kawakubo dived into fashion history for inspiration. Her works are characterized by her unique interpretation of the excessive silhouettes of the 19th century.


Self/Other


This section focused on exploring hybrid identities that blur the boundaries of cultural, gender, and age definitions. The Male/Female collection featured pants and skirts combined into one garment, a fusion further explored through the Child/Adult collection. This not only challenged age-appropriate clothing but also sought to capture the concept of "kawaii."


Object/Subject


Body Meets Dress - This section focuses on the Dress Meets Body collection. It reimagines the human form with a radical approach, featuring nylon and polyurethane padding. The padding is placed asymmetrically, overturning the definition of a fashionable body shape (thin waist, slim hips, etc.).


Clothes/Not Clothes


Clothes/Not Clothes
brought Kawakubo's "In-Betweenness" experiments to a conclusion. In 2014, she became dissatisfied with her own design process, realizing that this frustration was hindering her pursuit of "newness." As a result, they created with the radical intention of "not making clothes," and embodied this idea in "materials for the body," aiming to create "a form that had never existed before in the world of fashion." (Clothes/Not Clothes is further divided into eight subsections: Form/Function, Abstraction/Representation, Beautiful/Grotesque, War/Peace, Life/Loss, Fact/Fiction, Order/Chaos, and Bound/Unbound.)


This article has been translated and written with permission from (Source: " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.metmuseum.org/).