There’s irony in the fact that Comme des Garçons has operated a menswear brand called Shirt for years, finding myriad ways to deconstruct a button-down, and now here we are Zooming all day and only visible from the sternum up. It’s possible that Rei Kawakubo has really already thought of everything. There’s also little irony in the fact that while everyone is absorbed in the sweatpants-versus-suiting debate—11 months into the pandemic, a bored, binary way of thinking—Kawakubo is joyously producing shirts in Tokyo. The button-down is a middling, forgettable garment if there ever was one, and yet in her hands, it’s more compelling than most of what we’ve seen this year. Kawakubo always tends to get the last laugh.
The press release for the fall 2021 Comme des Garçons Shirt collection will be familiar to many who have covered Kawakubo’s work: “No theme.” Instead, the lineup includes a collaboration with Kaws that sees the artist reinterpret past designs he did for CDG as well as introduce new ones. The graphic design of the prints was decided upon by Kawakubo, with Companions and “CDG” in Kaws lettering trickling down shirts, vests, and messenger bags. The Zoom-bound will certainly appreciate the graphic elements and pastel hues.
Kawakubo has exploded the shirt in other ways too. Some are disordered, mis-buttoned at the neck or hem into folds, bows, and asymmetrical bias draping. These are worn under schoolboy-ish blazers, the material gathering at the shoulders or waist to give the models a bulbous shape. Continuing that idea are a series of puffer blazers, vests, and shorts in black that ride high on the shoulder and wide at the knee. They turn the wearer’s body into the shape of a Kaws sculpture: padded and puffy. The vibe is a sort of disheveled friendliness.
These are clothes that seem normal, but aren’t. That’s another nice thematic tie-in for 2021, a time that has started to feel normal but is actually anything but.