Who Is Rei Kawakubo? | The Leader Of The Comme Des Garçons Universe
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Hey guys, in today's video I am talking about legendary japanese fashion designer 'Rei Kawakubo.' She is the founder of Comme Des Garcons (CdG) & Dover Street Market.
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MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
Rei Kawakubo
Dover Street Market
Yohji Yamamoto
Issey Miyake
Adrian Joffe
Japanese Crow Cult
Tao Kurihara
Sacai (Chitose Abe)
Junya Watanabe
Comme Des Garçons Homme
Comme Des Garçons Shirt
Comme Des Garçons Black
Comme Des Garçons Homme Plus
Comme Des Garçons Tricot
Comme Des Garçons Play
Junya Watanabe Comme Des Garçons
Comme Des Garçons Fall Winter 1982
Comme Des Garçons Fall Winter 1988 (Jim Britt Ad Campaign)
Comme Des Garçons Spring Summer 1997 (Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body)
Comme Des Garçons Spring Summer 2004
Comme Des Garçons Spring Summer 2005 (Ballerina)
Comme Des Garçons Fall Winter 2005 (Bridal Collection)
Comme Des Garçons Spring Summer 2012 (White Drama)
Comme Des Garçons Fall Winter 2012 (2D Frocks)
In reality, Rei kinda compromised.....But she was very clever in it.
Overtime, her mainline became more artistic and less practical but all the diffusion lines were a way to "compromise". When you see the CDG galaxy and realize what she has managed to do (with her husband), it's quite impressive. CDG Play and shirts are huge commercial machines and behind them there's the Black line and stuff.
And it's interesting because the actual CDG has remained quite confidential in size and in audience.
I think you should have mentionned a few things to explain why her parisian debut was such shock and a break for fashion...
Kenzo is very important in that topic. He was the first japanese designer to make it big in the west, he came in the late 60's/early70's a created a romantic, colorful vision of eastern fashion and above all, japanese fashion. When Rei and Yohji presented their first collections, it was called the by the French Press "Hiroshima" fashion because everything was different but above all, it was different from that perception they had of Japanese fashion thanks to Kenzo.
The colors were muted, the clothes were destroyed, the presentation was different (quite military, no twirl, no seduction), the girls's attitude was different...Even down to the stores. CDG and Yohji's stores in the 80's were minimalist...Almost clinical. So they had a real point of view!
Rei said she wanted to change people's lifestyle and thanks to her influence, she succeeded.
I love her work even if the past few seasons, it was weird...More about the performance and the grandeur than the emotion and the real philosophy of CDG. Her last collection was a great return in form...
FW2012 was fabulous and your selection is great!
I must mention CDG Homme because i think that her menswear is sometimes underrated but her FW2006 menswear collection is one of the best menswear collection ever.
Yes, Rei is a legend, a treasure and since we have lost Azzedine Alaia & Karl Lagerfeld recently, we have to celebrate the last few legendary designers we have left.
It’s so sad that the real greats of fashion are all going one by one. I really don’t know what’s going to happen when all the greats leave us and we are left with the likes of off-white 😭.
There are definitely a lot of points I left out, but I’m making a lot of videos on the whole Comme Des Garçons empire so over time everything will all start to add up and one of the videos is about Kenzō, I’ve got others lined up about all her students like Junya Watanabe, Chitose Abe, Tao Kurihara etc. I’m also making videos on the different sub labels of CDG like play which is just a money maker and was meant to make the brand more accessible for people who can’t afford the mainline and CDG black which plays a similar role.
Why I said Rei Kawakubo never compromised is because she made financial decisions (definitely with huge help from Adrian Joffe) that meant she could always be artistic and creative with the mainline regardless of what the commercial success would be because she earnt enough from all other ends of the brand. Most designers don’t even have a choice otherwise they go under.
I do realise that Adrian Joffe is basically the financial whiz behind the empire and CDG wouldn’t be close to where it is financially without him. I remember reading somewhere a while ago that he convinced her into making most of the sub labels as well as founding the DSM store. He was the commercial director of CDG before they got married.
Without me talking about all the important CDG collections the video was 30 minutes so I’m considering making separate videos that go deeper into specific collections I left out. In this video it was more of a curation of fashion collections someone who hasn’t seen any of her collections before should see.
Excellent synopsis of her work and company! I'm so glad you mentioned Kenzo in the post cause the contrast really was pivotal. I hope you explore some more of the Avant Garde like Carol Christian Poell, Maurizio Altieri and his Continues Brands and Geoffrey B. Small. Then the brands that started from their ex partners, friends , staff, interns or clients.
What a wonderful reflection. I certainly learned a lot!
The biker+ballerina, I feel like, was her attempt to establish a kind of similarity between the two, as in bikers being the "ballerinas of the open road" and ballerinas being the "bikers of the grand stage" - both interesting entities vested with power and virtuosity, but with a distinct and, therefore, somewhat exclusive way of life.
Always knew who Rei Kawakubo was and what comme des garcons is plus I knew people rate it highly but I never understood why. This was so helpful and now I fully get it. You deserve waaayyyy more subscribers. There is no one else providing such value. Looking forward to the next videos in the series.
Thanks so much I really appreciate this
Rei makes designs that are too subtle to be a meme but way too strange to be normal. I think that’s why we love Cdg 🖤 plus her clothes are black ➕➕
We love all the different shades of black haha
thearchipelagoawaits.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/on-bauhaus-the-squirtle-squad-and-the-gothmother-of-black-how-japanese-culture-shapes-your-life/
I wrote an article about Japanese culture and its influence on the world- and on me! Rei comes up in it, among other people. Check it out if you're interested!
The madman really did it. 27min. Imma have to watch in installments tbh
It had to be done for the culture
If I ever become a famous designer, I want you to criticize/analyse my designs. You're going places man 👏🏼
I love how you are telling the story and mentioning all the essential things to build the understanding within a short time span. Rei is a living legend. Yesterday I watched her collection from 2017-2018 and I cried because of beauty.
You keep popping up when I search for fashion icons sir. Great job! Keep going
I’m trying my best haha. So many designers, so much research.
What an awesome summary. I've always been drawn to her look and read a lot about her in Japanese media but learned a lot of new things through your video.
I’m glad you liked it
I have been waiting for this! Very excited to watch
Hope you enjoy haha
This is an excellent commentary on Comme des Garçons. 👍👍👍
I hope you could have included some CdG menswear as well. And CdG Guerrilla Store, which is one of the pioneers of the pop-up shops.
Thanks so much I really appreciate it
I only talked about the womenswear because that’s mainly cdg mainline but I’m definitely going in depth into the menswear in a separate video. Stay tuned 🔥
This was awesome and I really appreciated all the info you put into the video - would love if you could include more pics in future videos!! For example when you're talking about what her old collections looked like or what was in style in Japan in the 80s, photos would have helped me visualize a lot better. Thank you and pls keep making more videos like this 🙏
Thanks a lot, this is really good feedback. I do agree because people may not know what I’m talking about when referencing certain time period so I definitely need to help people visualise what I’m talking about better.
learning so much about fashion from you. keep up these vids man!
Thanks, I really appreciate it
I would really like to know your opinion on Sommarena. It's a new Croatian brand. 2 girls also not trained as a fashion designer. One is an artist (scoulpturist) and other worked as a costume designer in theatre. Not saying that they are in the same realm as Rei, but watching this video I was reminded of Sommarena.
great video, really enjoying your channel. Just wondering, would you wear the CDG air force 1s? I get what you meant by Rei refrencing her bumps and lumps collection, but do you really think they are nice? Not hating or anything haha just wondering what you think.
Drapey silhouette isn’t exclusively a Japanese thing. Just Japan has been the first and most open East Asian country to the West so people often get the impression of that.
Japanese traditional clothing has been profoundly influenced by the Tang Dynasty in China.
What a way to start my morning.
🔥 I came with the heat
I remember back in the 80’s people used to hate Rei and black clothes and wrinkled I love rei way before she started designing with color’s
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Roadman you very smart and wise for your age I love watching you
I knew alot of this but I appreciate the deep dive
In the NFL(American Football) head coaches who have assistant coaches go on to be head coaches are apart of their coaching tree. It'd be interesting to see how alot of the legends in fashion stack up, you'd imagine Marc Jacobs, Rei Kawakubo and Walter Van Beirendonck would have the best "trees", maybe even Ralph Lauren
for example:
Rei Kawakubo
______________________________________________|______________________________________________________
| | | | |
Ito Junya Watanabe(self named) Junichi Abe(kolor) . Chitose Abe(sacai) Kei Ninomiya(noir)
the tree is probably way bigger and longer but you can only fit so much on YT lol but you get what I mean
The Rei Kawakubo tree is insane, I’m going to explore it over the years on UA-cam but it will take forever haha.
Fucking fire. Can we make this a prerequisite to watch for anyone who buys CdG play?
That would be extremely helpful haha
I remember all those collections from comme Des Garçons my favorite
You remember seeing a 90s comme des runway with the song Souvenir by OMD on youtube playing in the background?
I can't seem to find it on youtube but it was a very angelic moment to witness on here.
I think I have idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember the exact season it happened though. Do you remember the exact season the show was?
Love learning more about Rei’s work! Appreciate the work you put into this and I look forward to more!
I love Dover street Market even Egypt and Cairo also has them
But these bumps on the af1s are dinosaures. So what is That suppoused to mean?
Really enjoyed this video and it really helped me understand the brand way better in general. I admit I’m not a big fan of avant garde, but I’m interested in the way it influences the rest of the industry but your video helped me get it a bit more so thanks! I really like your content and I can’t wait to jump in and watch all your videos! Thank you !
Thanks I really appreciate it. A lot of people aren’t into avant grade fashion because they think it’s impractical and it’s not the most wearable and I get where they’re coming from. However, I think it’s important to know where certain influences come from.
just for future ref, its watah-nah-beh (Watanabe).
Play is the best diffusion line. Change my mind.
Absolute joker 😂😂
Play is what Raf Simons aspires to be. We all know this 😤
😂😂
So amazing seeing this video, you really brought in a simple way Rei, and it's my first contact with her. Thanks for your effort for real! Already subscribed
Comme des Garçons love this designer
Thank you so much for making this video I love rei and I’m trying to understand her and her label better!
No problem. Rei is a legend
there are a handful of really good fashion channels out there but you are the best ❤️
I don’t think it was a rumor that Rei and Yohji dated at one time. I think it’s well known and maybe something they now don’t discuss.
I was just joking around because they have said that it’s a rumour in interviews when it’s well documented that they were together. This was a long time ago though, now I barely make these kind of jokes in videos because I’ve learnt that people take every single thing I say literally 😂
Really love your videos, your in depth knowledge on designers keeps one hooke! Keep up the good work man.
Thanks so much I really appreciate it
🖤🕷 Cdg is one of the few lines I will would consider purchasing the women pieces just for the design. I actually have the cdg Air Force 1 Dino black lows. I got them on sale from ssense way below retail. I might not wear them cause I love the design so much.
Some CDG womenswear collections look like menswear anyway haha
The Fashion Archive yup especially the 80s collections .
@@BlackMagic-vx3rt Definitely
Rei and Yohji were married
Please make a video on how Issey Miyake is related to Madeleine Vionnet
In the near future I will be making a video on Vionnet and all shall be revealed
I hope it cam show the relationship.
My all time favorite. Adore Rei
She’s an absolute legend
Please do a vedio on Prada!
Fkkk that ss12 collection looks so good
It’s amazing for sure
I'm new to Comme des Garcon and this was a great overview of her work, I loved the Lumps and Bumps collection. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Rei I love her ads
amazing video, it was very informative and well edited. thank you
Loving the videos, keep it up, I think it’s great the research you have done for these videos, the detail you put Into them is amazing!
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it
I’m glad that I can go back in time and watch all those runways shows classic iconic REI supersmart designer one of my favorites no doubt
I love me rei
Dude please stop keep getting quiter after every cut. I‘m exhausted.
Hi love your videos! :) Where have you interned and how do you go about getting internships? Xx
Hey, I would be the worst person to ask that as I got both of my internships by luck haha. I interned at Deploy London (Womenswear) & Stella McCartney
In this video I talked about my first internship : ua-cam.com/video/SIimSWOVI3I/v-deo.html
best fashion channel on youtube
Really appreciate it ❤️
What collection show at the begin? When is that comme des collection precisely?
I don’t agree with some of your points but good video
The future is flat...."EARTH!"
🖤
every time you say "the fashion world went mad it was so funny". No one thinks its funny
Great video. Really enjoying your channel.
Thanks, been seeing all your comments
Amaaaaaazinggggggggg 😮😮
You wanted it so I made it haha
take a shot everytime he say "fashion genius".
If comme des garcons raised their prices to gucci or even margiela level 10 years ago
the cdg brand would be perceived more high end and gain more hype and popularity. But they cant do this now too many people know their 3 times cheaper.
Very very true tbh. However I’m sure CDG will never lose respect and ultimately Rei is the only one that has managed to keep hold of her brand out of those 3
Really enjoyed it. Thank you ✌
Glad you did
Bruv!
👀👀
This was amazing
Thanks so much I really appreciate it
Love ❤️ good job
She didn't found DSM, that's mostly her husband
She founded DSM with Adrian. Which therefore makes her a “founder”
An original
nice keep the good work
Thanks a lot, appreciate it
Do one on dries
It’s in the works
So cool video! :)
Thanks a lot
Great video!!
Thanks a lot
Virgils story is much more inspiring and cooler than this.
FaCtS
You should try to get a copy of the Met's exhibition catalog (not the book, the brochure given at the exhibition) because most of your interpretations of the collections are wrong. For example "[...] Kawakubo's collection Motorbike Ballerina. The ensembles combine tutus and leather jackets in an attempt to reconcile the "high" culture of ballet with the "low" subculture of bikers or "greasers."" Do better research before posting a video...
She's a legend but doesn't touch Lee McQueen. If he was still alive, CDG would arguably have less influence and scale as a brand.
I have a slight issue with comparing two fashion legends who came up in completely different eras, have completely different design aesthetics and became legends for two completely different reasons. In fashion we are always bound to say “this designer is better than that designer.” Why can’t they both exist in the same space as legends? Fashion is subjective so it would be categorically impossible for you to say which great is greater than the other.