In 1993 Comme des Garçons celebrated its 20th anniversary. Never afraid of knocking convention, Rei Kawakubo kicked off the year with a Spring collection called “Ultrasimple,” a title that is perhaps best understood as a tongue-in-cheek description, as the show took several unexpected turns.
The opening blue and white looks seemed straightforward enough, though they were constructed using bleached home-furnishings fabrics. Light and spring-y, many were accessorized with straw pagoda-like hats. Models not sporting headgear had their heads and hair bound in clear tape. More outrageous still were the large and bizarre millinery creations that appeared about halfway through the presentation. These were topped, incredibly, by the dramatic finale dresses, huge poufs with a trace of the 18th century about them. More provoking than their proportions, though, was their fabrication. Kawakubo, who once told Vogue she had “a mission to challenge conformity,” had made them of a classic chalkstripe, an ultraconservative tailoring fabric generally associated with moneyed menswear. Ultra-simple? We beg to differ.
