Rei Kawakubo, for once, has delivered a collection under the Comme des Garcons mainline that is commercial.
I hesitated writing about this specific collection for a while- was there anything to write about it? What was there to say? What was Kawakubo saying, if anything? The collection didn’t as much baffle me as leave me stricken of words.

The collection has no emotional punch. I clicked through each look mutely- there wasn’t anything to write home about. There was no fever holding the collection together, as with the previous “Wonderland” collection. Sometimes Kawakubo’s ideas are simple, and each look is a variation on these simple but strong ideas. “Wonderland” called to mind the homeless- use of blankets as part of coats, etc- it was a raw, overpowering collection. Conversely, this latest collection seems to be a robotic, systematic and synthesized exploration of key motifs in recent Kawakubo collections. Tops were deconstructed, made out of shoulder pads, polka dots were used, hair reminist of the “Football” collection sat atop the models like insane plumes, and various prints were used in a seemingly random fashion recalling several previous collections of Kawakubo’s. Yet where the motifs served a purpose in each previous collection, the motifs here seem to be the purpose. Technique equals idea, whilst eroding emotion.

Sarah Mower suggests that this is perhaps Kawakubo wryly commenting on fashion of recent seasons: the obsession with shoulders- which Kawakubo deconstructs and turns into tops (perhaps recalling a vanished ghost of fashion- Martin Margiela, who often created clothes out of unconventional materials), the fetish for military coats (see: Balmain.), and so on. In essence it’s The State Of Modern Fashion According To Rei Kawakubo.
Kawakubo doesn’t actually make a judgement on The State Of Modern Fashion itself. She simply synthesizes it into a sort of gross pastiche that’s still no doubt sellable. Many of the pieces are fairly basic, if the complex elements are taken out- so many of the complex elements come from the styling. Belts, shoulder-accessories, the hair.

In creating a collection that’s Modern Fashion, synthesized, Kawakubo creates another limit- it’s actually very hard for this collection to be better than Modern Fashion itself. Most of the pieces don’t transcend Modern Fashion. Looks 33-35, innocent dresses in either white or polka dot are an exception- shoulder pads are incorporated over the right breast, creating a slightly exaggerated silhouette (more than slightly exaggerated given the flat-chested, pubescent boy models who’re wearing the dresses.). Yet even these dresses, though clever, don’t provoke a reaction. They’re clinical but not perverse. We’ve been bombarded with some many variations on the same look, both in the wider arena of fashion- shoulders, military etc, and in this particular collection, that this subtle wink either goes unnoticed or noticed but pushed to the side. It doesn’t have any shock attached, and whatever innuendo it may carry is neutralized by the rest of the collection.

The collection’s kind of pretty in an odd way. I’m reminded of fallen leaves off a tree, multicoloured, broken and delicate. It’s commercial. It’ll sell.

I feel kind of empty looking at it. I feel like Kawakubo shot a blank. It’s her “Sally Can’t Dance”- Lou Reed commented after the making of that godawful album (also his most successful at the time) that if he didn’t sing at all it’d probably go to number one. Did Kawakubo even bother doing anything new here? I don’t know- I don’t feel so, but hell, maybe she did. It doesn’t feel new because the elements she synthesizes and mixes are so new- I’ve already seen them a million times in a million other shows. It’s clever, I’ll give her that. Clever and emotionless and clinical. It’s a certain type of fashion- the sort of clothes that somebody buys from a regular clothes shop- H&M or somesuch, bought to boiling point. It is the most “avant garde” of this Regular Sort Of Fashion. The most “artistic”. Kawakubo’s capable of more, but here it almost seems like she’s completing some sort of circle- with the “PLAY” line, it’s Regular Clothes at their barest level (for an obscene price), and with this collection it’s Regular Clothes at their highest level. Regular Clothes don’t often provoke emotion, and they don’t here. They’d be better displayed on a rack in a store. That being said, it’s not a bad collection by any means. It’s pretty. It’s commercial. It has a few standout moments. It just isn’t satisfying.