An angel appeared in the middle of the Comme des Garçons show. Her white tweed coat twinkled with minute crystals. A huge, padded overcoat rested on her shoulders. When she turned, everyone saw: She had a pair of white lace wings embedded in her back. A wonderstruck intake of breath from the audience sucked the air from the room.
Which one of us wouldn’t adore an angel to come down from heaven to sort out the surreal mess the world is in? Somehow, Rei Kawakubo’s collection was a performative expression of human fantasies and childlike longings in a time of gathering darkness and fear. Could it have been a coincidence that she chose to bring people together to watch her throw out her enigmatic suggestions in the Brutalist building which houses the Russian embassy in Paris?
Creative resistance has been a theme of this season. The Kawakubo angel—a timelessly chic fashion goddess in her imposing white tweed suit—stood out as the singular persona manifested at the center of a colorful, surreal, cartoonish, kawaii toy- and computer game–referencing parade. “Multidimensional graffiti” were Kawakubo’s words on it, translated by her husband, Adrian Joffe, backstage—her spontaneous writings on the wall of the weirdness which surrounds us.
Hello Kitty and plastic kiddy novelties were piled up as neckpieces and embedded in space-princess wigs. The face and blonde tresses of a blue-eyed manga princess adorned floor-length coats. Massive crinolined ball gowns bore digital prints of the work of the 16th-century artist Arcimboldo, who painted surreal portraits made of vegetables and fruit. Photoshopped Dutch still lifes of flowers tumbled over skirts. Sinister black crows appeared on steel-gray satin playsuits under sculptural jackets. Rough-hewn patchwork, spray-painted graffiti art, ruffles, and stiffly contoured red plastic raincoats got mixed up in it all.
There will be many readings to be extrapolated from all this. Discussion of Kawakubo’s exploratory collaging of the keepsakes and creative art of millennial culture will be part of it. There will be observations about the parallels she may be drawing between our era of consumption and waste, and other historical hysterical times of decadence. It will certainly be noted that she chose to end this show with classical funeral music. Optimism is not an option Rei Kawakubo can see. Yet, on the other hand—that angel? She might not save the world, but she’ll sure be selling plenty of Comme des Garçons white tweed and lace next season.