Comme des Garcons
Comme des Garcons is a fashion brand, refusing to be one. The PradaGuccis use to build themselves monuments with fashion-capital’s flagship-stores - Comme des Garcons instead opens Guerilla Stores at alternative locations for just a year or so. And re-opens them somewhere else, always in hidden, unexpected areas and locations such as former warehouses, etc.
1972 Rei Kawakubo founds the brand Comme des Garcons (”like boys”) in Tokio, today she still is the head of design. Comme des Garconsis clothing which does not care about following or creating trends. Since 1984 the women’s collection is added by men’s fashion.
Rei Kawakubo is the first designer creating specific store architecture for her fashion (herself). After the luxury brands have done the same she developed: There’s a “fixed” store in Paris, one in New York, a few in Japan and the Dover Street Market in London, where Comme des Garcons is presented with other brands in kind-of-a-market environment.
The Guerilla Stores match Rei Kawakubo’s nature against the establishment. Often her fashion is angry, shapeless, provoking, anti-trendy black or bright, sometimes with sculptural elements. The Guerilla Stores are opened for just a year at each location. And the fans come.
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