REI KAWAKUBO: RENEGADES OF FASHION

by Charlie O'Brien

VOL viii // Rei KawakuboThe old guard of fashion despised her; the critics never understood her. But for Rei Kawakubo, founder of the renowned fashion label Comme Des Garcons, that was always the point. For the more polarising a collection was, the more success it accrued. Kawakubo eschewed conventional standards of beauty, ushering in a new era of anti-fashion; a deconstructed wonderland of noir, capable of creating strong, provocative pieces for women with a defiant desire to dress in a way that reflected their own unique sensibilities.Kawakubo has always asserted she owns a duality of personality, and her early adult years did much to cultivate this while the bohemian lifestyle of Harajuku spoke to her inherent desire to “break the rules,” the other half – gifted through education and the affluent social circles she formed during university – held a deep concern for both “tradition and history.”RENEGADES SERIESTo the casual outsider the Fashion Industry can appear to be a cauldron of creativity with endless innovation and risk taking, as every new season designers have to forget their past successes and milestones and return alone to a blank canvas, to create their next collection, and this cycle repeats itself every 6 months. Only in rare cases is fashion ever truly art, and only in even the rarest of cases are fashion designers true artists. The bulk of the industry, from the Haute Couturiers making one off’s right down tothe mass merchants follow the trends each season. And following trends is a big money spinner, but not everybody is happy to be a cog in this giant money making machine, there are a handful of mavericks who refuse to play the game. They bow to no-one and follow no trends. These are the ‘Renegades of Fashion.Renegades of fashionVOL I : Jeremy ScottVOL II : Alexander McQueenVOL III : Hedi SlimaneVOL IV : John GallianoVOL V : Issey MiyakeVOL VI : Kenzo TakadaVOL VII : Malcolm McLarenVOL VIII : Rei KawakuboVOL IX : Rick OwensVOL X : Vivienne WestwoodVOL XI : Yohji Yamamoto

32 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2019