Comme des Garcons F/W 2018.19 Paris

[margielamike2004]

The future of fashion?? Hmm?? From my outlook...and the current state of affairs in regards to future fashion?? My answer: Let's slap a taky badge....or a silly status symbol on it. Let's promote a famous celebrity to wear it so it proves its credibility... Let's sell 100 million of them...and we'll call it "fashion."

 

[margielamike2004]

Continued...."and let's hope that it finds its way onto Instagram.". Like I mentioned prior....I'm an old sage. I have no idea what exactly instagram, is. Heard of it...but never a visit. As they say...."ignorance is bliss." The less I know about it...the less I'll be bothered by it.

 

[margielamike2004]

And being my age....47....I've seen enough collections... from practically every designer out there.....to last me a lifetime. From Cluade Montana...Masaki Matsushima...to Byblos and Raf Simons. But...fashion has always been one of my passions. Its like taking a drug through my eye's....that I can't give up. Who's doing what.....who's doing what for who...who's the new creative director for whichever house of fashion..etc etc. A T-shirt of mine....by Jean Paul Gaultier...sums it up for me. "Never Turn Your Back On Fashion."

 

[Uemarasan]

yeah

this is a little bit like the Gucci thread, the Raf Simons thread, you get the people that have pretty much always hung their expectations to a quick stage in the house' repertoire, maybe in 2007, 1997, 2004.. it's always something brief that would hardly sum up what a human's interests and pursuits in a creative field (with Raf it was ONE freakin' watered-down collection at Jil when people hated his work there from day one and until the very end but just giving a break right in the middle of his tenure) and from then on, it's always "Don't get me wrong, I LOVE [insert name], but this season it's really awful", multiply that same comment for 20 seasons (10 years). I don't know, if this natural rejection of their work has happened repeatedly for over 5 years, maybe you're just not into their work? it's fine, it's okay to like some oldie stuff.. it's just the mandatory disclaimer as some kind of fashion credential for judgement loses value without truth.

I thought this looked good in motion, almost as good as the soundtrack .. but it does look kind of s*it in pictures, and where are the details? stupid vogue.

I agree. Some seem to have constructed their own idea of what CDG is supposed to be in their heads when in fact the reality of CDG is very far from what they believe it should be. Maybe they don't really like CDG in the first place? It's akin to expecting Apple to suddenly be Samsung. I welcome criticism, but let's not pretend that they in their heart of hearts really admire or respect Rei's vision.

CDG will always move forward and evolve. There is no quaint and fossilized nostalgia for the "wearable" glories of the past here, thank God. CDG is one of the very few that actually has any integrity and sincerity in this cynical, corporate, sycophantic malaise draining the world of fashion. For those who miss the "wearable" CDG, why not direct that support to Noir Kei Ninomiya, comment on that beautiful collection (the best this season, in my opinion) because the number of posts in that thread is pathetic, and buy the clothes? Instead of beating a dead donkey here for several years now. Even the same copy/paste criticism from years back.

That being said, I thought this was better than last season's, but it doesn't move me as much. I like some of the romantic, girlish trimmings: the frills, the kitschy patterns and colors, the florals and roses. The outfit resembling a cross between a French confection and the Princess and the Pea in particular is quite lovely. However, the use of gold seems particularly harsh, and I was expecting more ribbons. I think I need more time to fully digest this collection.

 

[MulletProof]

^ I thought that was the best too (or more like the only thing I actually liked..). Happy it doesn’t have a thread.. any other ‘is this trying to be Lady Gaga?’ and I’ll spontaneously combust.

 

[Lola701]

The Lady Gaga comment was reaching. Please respect Queen Rei!

 

[margielamike2004]

The reason why Lady Gaga is able to wear the things she wears...is mainly because... she has the cult of personality. If she were one of the "common people".....like you, me, and everyone else....her far reaching fashion sensibility would be the laughing joke all around town.

 

[MulletProof]

yeah she used to dress and look like snookie from the jersey shore before her generic music got around. Now you probably don’t know what that means..

 

[margielamike2004]

Nope...completely no idea....never heard of..or know who...Snookie, is.

 

[jeanclaude]

I know it’s Rei and i have the greatest respect and admiration for her and i also know that we are not supposed to say anything negative or dismissive about her work but I do because I feel like it. I’m totally against that mentality of saying yes to everything because of the status of designer.

You´ve wrote here something that I find very interesting; and that I think it could be a key factor to try to understand Kawakubo´s work in the last years.

I´ve always wondered if the development of this abstract collections have a hidden purpose: a way to put in the spotligh how much hypocritical people is (and fashion people in particular).

Because let´s face it. If someone dares to say these kind of collections are trash, that person is gonna get answers like "you don´t understand fashion", "this is art"; and "please educate yourself".
But if another designer makes an abstract collection, like Rei´s, he/she would be mocked at without any pity.

If Kawakubo makes it, it is art. If another designer makes it, it´s crap.
And I think she is well aware of this and about her (well deserved) status, as the most important living avant-garde fashion designer...and she likes to expose this kind of hypocresy.

I remember that men collection, several seasons ago, with "Emperor´s new clothes" splashed all over the garments. I think she gave us a hidden hint with that collection.

And about this collection, I´m gonna say what I always do: this is a bunch of interesting concepts, but in raw form. But if polished, they can get a lot of interesting (and wearable) clothes from here.

 

[margielamike2004]

Great outlook, Jean Claude. And as I mentioned prior....in a previous post.....perhaps all of this....is Rei Kaeakubo's way....of giving all of society the middle finger. Lest we forget she is a punk.

 

[jeanclaude]

Great outlook, Jean Claude. And as I mentioned prior....in a previous post.....perhaps all of this....is Rei Kaeakubo's way....of giving all of society the middle finger. Lest we forget she is a punk.

Exactly! A very subtle way of saying "f.u.c.k. you all, you a.s.s. lickers"!

 

[Uemarasan]

yeah she used to dress and look like snookie from the jersey shore before her generic music got around. Now you probably don’t know what that means..

Lol. Now I'll never be able to see Lady Gaga without imagining Snooki.

I've been thinking about what Lola said earlier in this thread. Maybe Rei actually has stopped making clothes (or at least "fashion") for a long time now. Didn't she say so herself a while back in 2013? The appeal of these abstract collections for me is definitely not rooted in any sense of clothing in the conventional sense. Yes, they are worn on the body, but that's the only thing they have in common with every other collection during fashion week. Instead, they occupy an interesting limbo between art piece and the fashion cycle.

 

[margielamike2004]

...and.....we all need to keep in mind....that Comme was never about making fashion, per se'....it was considered to be more anti-fashion.

 

[Uemarasan]

...and.....we all need to keep in mind....that Comme was never about making fashion, per se'....it was considered to be more anti-fashion.

Indeed, which is why I don't understand the desire for CDG to be more "commercial". As if we need more of that during fashion week.

I imagine Rei is quite aware that ideas she once introduced as anti-fashion have now become gentrified as part of the fashion mainstream that she has simply taken herself out of the immediate orbit of everyone else.

 

[Lola701]

Indeed, which is why I don't understand the desire for CDG to be more "commercial". As if we need more of that during fashion week.

For me, it's not at all a desire for CDG to be more commercial as she has other lines that feed us with beautiful and interesting clothes. When she started, she wanted and i believe that still to this day, her intention was to challenge our perception of either beauty, feminity or even the idea of fashion as unlike other designers, she didn't came from the heritage of Couture or even high society dressing.

I see her current work still as a reaction to the circus of fashion. She is doing her own circus by also challenging IMO the idea of wearability. These garments are wearable to a certain level but they are not practical. It's like if she removed the function in order to focus on the design in a way.

What i just said is that the desire isn't that much for her to make wearable clothes in a "practical" way as she did because she is not interested in revisiting her own past but, fashion is such in a weird place right now and i feel like she can, with her power, infuse a new energy if she tries to merge this with her past to create something new.

I feel like it's a bit what John is trying to do with Margiela but his clothes get lost in the technicality (if the word exist). Rei has always maintained a deep sense of emotion in her work because rather than being "intellectual", it's pretty much "cerebral".

She has a bit put herself in that piedestal where she is somewhere on the top, isolated in her "creative ivory tower" and the others (her diffusion lines included) are somewhere in the Babel tower. If she can just come visit for one time, maybe something bigger will change.

 

[runner]

But...fashion has always been one of my passions. Its like taking a drug through my eye's....that I can't give up. Who's doing what.....who's doing what for who...who's the new creative director for whichever house of fashion..etc etc. A T-shirt of mine....by Jean Paul Gaultier...sums it up for me. "Never Turn Your Back On Fashion."

good to hear that. I tried asking you the question because you stated "Personally.....I'm really fed up with Rei"

 

[runner]

Lest we forget she is a punk.

the naming of CdG in the first place because of paris dreamin'. and at that time she was a fan girl of sonia rykiel. even after the birth of punk she was driving a citroen. for her, punk is not immediate and lived but objectified and abstract thing. it is science rather than experience. indeed one of the most important comme elements but it's there as code instead of life.

 

[runner]

...and.....we all need to keep in mind....that Comme was never about making fashion, per se'....it was considered to be more anti-fashion.

anti-fashion is just another fashion that is dependent on fashion. the former is not able to maintain its standpoint without the latter. it's non-fashion that could be something else though.

 

[runner]

on a bit different note, there is a weekly magazine named anan, originally a sister publication of Elle. for the issue 348 from 1982, there was a shoot project where designers themselves did the styling of their own clothes and the overall direction including hair, makeup, etc. the theme was to show the clothes for daily life/in ordinary context (as opposed to the runway presentation).
in spite of the theme, "I wanted to remove the general ideas of clothes", rei kawakubo speaking of her intention for the shoot. you saw the radical will already there.
btw yohji's comment was like "I like the makeup where you'd sense the girl is a bookworm and you cannot imagine her eating rice. that said, don't want it to make you imagine her eating shortcake."



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