“Comme des Garçons,” Rei Kawakubo told Vogue in 1995, “is a gift to oneself, not something to appeal to or attract the opposite sex.” If that’s so, her Spring 1991 collection was the exception that proved the rule; in it Kawakubo used diaphanous sheers, slippery lingerie silks, and draped jersey that revealed the womanly, not waifish, bodies beneath them. The cast included the likes of Linda Evangelista, Yasmin Le Bon, and Cordula Reyer, all of whom projected grown-up glamour.
Skewing the seductive appeal of their clothes were giant hats and black roses in full bloom, the flamboyance of which was tempered, in turn, by the sensibly flat shoes and incongruous onesies worn with some of the looks. The majority of the collection was made in a monochrome palette of white, black, and pearly grays (created by adding calligraphy ink to the fabric dye). As the show progressed, texture and color were added via splatter patterns and floral embroideries. It was left to the printed finale pieces, replicating the lead-paned windows of medieval churches, to illuminate the show’s title: “Ink Dye, Stained Glass.”
