PARIS, APRIL 24, 2017
by LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON
The woman Rei Kawakubo creates for is unquestionably an independent thinker. She also has range, with an ability to reconcile her inner punk and lady. Kawakubo concentrated most of her attention on the latter for Fall 1999, as she went about subverting the codes of femininity in a glittery collection titled Transformed Glamour. (Though, if the show was a parody, as some have suggested, Never Mind the Bollocks might have worked as well.)
Models walked a red runway in silence—perhaps a reference to old-time couture traditions—sporting French twists at the forehead rather than the nape. Some of them were gift-wrapped, their shoulders bound by outsize bows made of metal-flecked tweed, chalk stripe, and squares of crochet. There were sequins, too, on asymmetric dresses with bold geometric patterns, and on sparkly hot pants that flashed intermittently beneath somber draped pieces. Kawakubo’s rebel yell? Closing dresses made from that stalwart punk fetish, tartan.
