found some old articles!
january 2, 1984 from people weekly
"In fashion, it was the year of the Japanese. And no one in that ultrasensitive land, where every stitch can set off an earthquake, rattled more sake cups than Rei Kawakubo--not even her talented compatriots Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. From Paris to Tokyo her followers are striding about in Kawakubo's mournful, strangely cut garments, black socks and rubber shoes. Rei's critics hold the 41-year-old designer responsible for perpetrating a formless, asexual look. "Her clothes don't touch or mold the body," complains traditionalist French designer Sonia Rykiel. "There's a lack of softness." But Rei's supporters credit her with some of the most startling and influential designs out of Japan today. "Rei is an original," says Bendel Vice-President Jean Rosenberg. "She is a master of intricate cuts." n Kawakubo, the most radical of the new wave of Japanese designers, pronounces Western skintight garments "quite boring," adding, "I design for women who are beyond that." What sort of woman? "The bag lady of New York," Kawakubo replied fliply when asked by Women's Wear Daily.
Rei's now historic advance on the West took place only two years ago. Her first show in Paris caused one of the biggest furors since Stravinsky introduced The Rite of Spring. Like Stravinsky, Rei coolly mocked conventions--shredding and poking holes in skirts, tops and dresses. In the U.S., where her clothes still baffle the uninitiated eye, Rei's success is growing rapidly. She now has outposts in nine U.S. cities, with her own boutique in Manhattan's breathlessly fashionable SoHo district.
If Kawakubo is oblique when it comes to discussing her work, the tiny (5'1") designer is positively opaque when it comes to her personal life. Where did she grow up? "In Tokyo." What did her parents do? "Nothing special." What kind of clothes interested her as a child? "I don't remember." And so on.
It is known that Rei was the only daughter of an educator. She received a fine arts degree from Tokyo's prestigious Keio University in 1964. She worked as a stylist after graduating, and in 1973 she started her own company, Comme des Garcons (French for Like the Boys). Rei is characteristically vague when it comes to explaining why she chose that name, but what's in a name? Begin with the $30 million plus in sales Comme des Garcons is expected to pull in this year.
Profits, Rei insists, are not foremost in her mind. Maybe; maybe not. One thing is certain. Kawakubo, who is unmarried and lives alone, has clearly dedicated herself to shattering fashion icons. Now that the rest of the world is into holes and tears, Rei is moving on. At her spring-summer show in Tokyo last month, unsmiling models with a white streak on one cheek marched down the runway in garments dripping with gathers. And while the collection was Rei's most formfitting to date, it was also the most asymmetrical, with uneven hems and sleeves. Once again Kawakubo is upsetting the status quo. "I am in my own world," says the revolutionary of Japanese fashion. "Any person creating something wants to do better and better. I'm never satisfied. There's no end."
march, 23, 1984 from wwd
When iconoclastic Japanese soulmates Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto showed their respective fall collections, there were no shocked gasps, on the one hand, or thunderous applause, on the other. The electric moment of the so-called Japanese wave of fashion as something daringly different has passed, even if the aggressively somber style of presentation remains much the same. Still, if the thrill is gone, the commercial potential of these collections has not. In fact, retailers said that Yamamoto's offerings, particularly his sweaters, promise to be among his most salable ever. And while some had doubts about the actual commercial appeal of Kawakubo's Comme des Garcons collection, they felt her new emphasis on a slimmer silhouette bodes well for the future.
Yohyi Yamamoto -- Let's look at the practical side of things. If the survivalist era of "The Road Warrior" is fast upon us, then Yamamoto has provided us with just the right sort of protective camouflage. His more spectacular fall offerings include rubber hose sunglasses, whose arms should come in handy for beating off attackers, stiffened 3-D scarves that would allow no one to come up too close, stiff coats with rolled-up hems and rolled-back lapels that could easily unroll for instant carpeting, mountain climber's tools as accessories and huge kleptomaniac coats that could hide a multitude of pilfered goods.
If these are the images that linger most conspicuously in the memory, a cooler look at Yamamoto's collection reveals a lot of comparatively sane, wearable and probably very commercial items. Among them: young, lively square-cut plaid separates; ingenious little jackets cut up to the armpits and flared, which were easily the best contribution to the enduring layered look; hobo tuxedos, and, as always, beautiful, inventively combined fabrics, with a new, much-needed emphasis on color that ranges from subtle shades of navy to hot neons. Many of the sweaters are sensational, most notably the bicolor high-collar pullovers with dropshoulders, standaway backs and long sleeves that cover the hands.
"Terrific," said Ellin Saltzman, vice president and fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, of the Yamamoto collection. "The coats and sweaters are sensational. It's very commercial for us. He's a very, very talented man." Sydney Bachman, vice president and fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, singled out the Yamamoto sweaters as "beyond compare; in knitwear, he's the best." Added Macy's fashion director Terry Melville, "He's developed his own style, but he keeps coming up with new shapes and new ideas that are more wearable."
Comme des Garcons -- Ah, the delicately winning ways of Rei Kawakubo, the samurai geisha of fashion. In her show for Comme des Garcons, which led off the major collections, she set out to seduce her audience with all the discreet finesse of an Amazon warrior on the rampage. Coy Kawakubo cleverly snuck up on her unwary spectators by sending the models out before the lights were dimmed and any soundtrack had begun. And unless you were already in your seat you probably missed the first few numbers, since Rapid Rei kept those models whizzing up and down the runway as if they just couldn't wait to get out of those clothes.
This attack strategy is obviously designed to upset a viewer's traditional expectations of what a fashion show is, just as Kawakubo's deliberately asymmetrical and contorted clothes have always challenged Western assumptions of what fashion itself is. Unfortunately, the aggression act is getting a little stale, especially when it's delivered without a whit of irony.
While there are still amorphous, somber-tone layers piled together in a manner suggesting the accumulation of a week's laundry, Kawakubo does come across with some news in the form of slimmer silhouettes -- most notably the long, body-binding knotted tunics and bum wraps over skinny dresses -- and an unexpectedly spectable of shimmering colors, in a rainbow of rosy tones.
There are also some Japanese milk maid looks, in dresses shirred into bouffant bubbles of fabric at every angle, which represent Kawakubo's contribution to the Austrian window shades sweepstakes of fashion, an alarmingly prevalent trend this season. Best in the collection are the simple side-tied slim tunics over long skirts, ingenious mixed-media knits wrapped around the body in every possible way, the understated neutral-tone knit separates and the big windowpane plaid coats.
from findarticles.com
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