Exploring Abstract Forms in Each Comme des Garçons Collection
Exploring Abstract Forms in Each Comme des Garçons Collection
Blog Article
Few fashion houses possess the radical energy and unrelenting vision of Comme des Garçons. Founded in 1969 by Rei Kawakubo, the brand has long defied conventional notions of fashion, beauty, and structure. Comme Des Garcons While many designers flirt with abstraction, Kawakubo has spent decades immersing her collections in it. Comme des Garçons is not just a label—it is a language of shape, void, and philosophy. Central to that language is abstraction, a recurring theme that has come to define its seasonal offerings.
The Early Years: Deconstruction as the Seed of Abstraction
In the early 1980s, Comme des Garçons gained international attention for its avant-garde approach to tailoring. Kawakubo’s now-legendary “black” collection for Spring/Summer 1983 was met with shock and awe in Paris. Loose silhouettes, frayed hems, asymmetry, and monochrome tones presented a jarring contrast to the hyper-tailored glamour of the time. Though rooted in deconstruction, these early designs already hinted at abstraction through their disregard for traditional proportion and symmetry.
These early collections weren’t abstract in a sculptural sense just yet, but Kawakubo was already destabilizing the visual expectations of fashion. Garments became expressions of decay, absence, and raw construction. The silhouette was not an outline of the body, but a question posed to it.
The 1990s: From Anti-Fashion to Artistic Form
By the 1990s, Comme des Garçons’ approach evolved from raw minimalism to deliberate experimentation with form. Abstraction emerged more directly—garments resembled cocoons, shrouds, or entirely alien objects. The Spring/Summer 1997 collection, titled “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body,” introduced the now-iconic padded lumps and protrusions that distorted the body in surreal ways. With this collection, abstraction ceased being just a mood or an aesthetic; it became a sculptural act.
These bulbous forms blurred the lines between dress and object, fashion and art. The human form was still there, but it was interrupted, concealed, or exaggerated in ways that provoked discomfort and fascination. Here, Kawakubo was not designing for the body, but rather designing a dialogue around it.
The 2000s: Sculptural Expression and Conceptual Extremes
As the new millennium unfolded, Comme des Garçons began consistently pushing abstraction as the central thesis of each collection. In Autumn/Winter 2005, silhouettes appeared as poetic fragments—half-jackets, layered aprons, and exaggerated padding all contributed to a feeling of incomplete thoughts rendered in fabric. Kawakubo was no longer content with subverting garments—she was sculpting visual paradoxes.
One of the most impactful moments came with the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, where entire looks were constructed from layered, oversized pieces with ambiguous origins. Were they coats? Dresses? Abstract installations? The viewer was invited to abandon traditional taxonomies of clothing.
During this era, Comme des Garçons presented collections that often rejected wearability in favor of symbolism and emotion. Kawakubo began referring to many of her collections as “concepts” or “experiments,” resisting the commercial expectations of the fashion calendar. Abstraction was no longer only formal—it was philosophical.
The 2010s: Abstraction as Emotional Architecture
The 2010s marked a period in which abstraction became a means of storytelling. The Autumn/Winter 2014 “Not Making Clothing” collection cemented this approach. It presented garments that resembled enormous flowers, tombstones, and sculptures. Kawakubo explicitly stated that she was no longer interested in making clothes but in creating something else entirely. The runway became a stage for theater, memory, and existential rumination.
Spring/Summer 2015 explored abstraction through excess—massive, amorphous shapes enveloped the models. Fabric overwhelmed the body, pushing it into the background as the abstract form took center stage. The garments referenced themes of birth, chaos, and rebirth. These were not clothes to be worn; they were visual sermons.
By Autumn/Winter 2017, the theme of “The Future of Silhouette” pushed abstraction to its most extreme. Models walked in bulbous, planet-like spheres, covered in layers of waxed textiles and papier-mâché forms. Each look was an organism, each model a moving sculpture. It was fashion unshackled from function, guided solely by vision.
The 2020s and Beyond: Abstract as Identity
Recent collections have continued this trajectory, with abstraction serving not only as a design method but as a kind of brand identity. Comme des Garçons has created a visual lexicon where abstraction functions as resistance: resistance to normativity, gender binary, fast fashion, and the commodification of self.
Even in more wearable lines like CDG Long Sleeve Comme des Garçons Homme Plus or the Play line, hints of abstraction appear—subtle asymmetries, disrupted logos, or distorted tailoring. The spirit of abstraction trickles into commercial lines, a testament to Kawakubo’s uncompromising vision.
In an industry often driven by trend cycles and commercialism, Comme des Garçons stands as a bastion of intellectual and artistic independence. Rei Kawakubo doesn’t design for the market—she designs from the void. Abstraction, for her, is not merely a tool for innovation; it is the essence of creative freedom.
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