Comme Des Garcons

Comme des Garcons is a Parisian fashion brand run by its owner, Rei Kawakubo. Rei Kawakubo is an avant-garde Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Her collections showcase 'anti-fashion' elements. She is so distinctive that, in recognition of her contribution to the prominence of design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York decided to dedicate a special exhibition to her. Rei Kawakubo was born on October 11, 1942, in Tokyo. Judith Thurman summed up her early life in Japan in a 2005 article in The New Yorker: "She was the eldest of her parents' three children and their only daughter..." Her father was a director at Keio University, a prestigious institution founded by the educator and Meiji reformer Yukichi Fukuzawa, who is considered a champion of Western culture and a strong advocate for women's rights in Japan. Although she had no formal training as a fashion designer, Kawakubo studied art and literature at Keio University. In 1960, she enrolled at her father's university and earned a degree in 'History of Aesthetics,' a field that included the study of Asian and Western art. After graduating in 1964, she began working in the advertising department at the textile company Asahi Kasei while also working as a freelance stylist. In 1969, she began designing and producing her own clothes under the Comme des Garcons label, which means "like boys" in French. One of the most influential designers in fashion, Rei Kawakubo seeks to challenge the form of traditional clothing. Kawakubo is the second living designer to be honored with an exhibition of her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition focused specifically on key themes that inspired and continue to inspire her creativity as a designer in relation to the human form and the body. As a designer, she offers new ideas of beauty by creating shapes and organic protrusions in her clothing, and designs outfits that reject standard sizing. She seeks to disregard gender stereotypes entirely, even in the context of male and female. In an interview with Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times following the opening of Kawakubo's 2017 exhibition at the Met, her husband, Adrian Joffe, noted that this would probably be her last exhibition, as she is now 74. The two lead an interesting married life, working together. However, while Joffe is based in Paris, his wife lives in Tokyo, in the upscale Aoyama neighborhood. Kawakubo is known for being the first into the office in the morning and the last to leave. The Comme des Garcons brand has 97 perfumes in its fragrance database. Its earliest release was created in 1994, and its newest is from 2021. Comme des Garcons fragrances were created in collaboration with perfumers Antoine Lie, Jean-Christophe Hérault, Maurice Roucel, Mark Buxton, Antoine Maisondieu, Eleanor Massanet, Lucas Sieuzac, Rei Kawakubo, Nelly Hachem-Ruiz, Alexis Dadier, IFF, Caroline Dumur, Emilie (Bevierre) Coppermann, Nathalie Feisthauer, Bertrand Duchaufour, Florence Idier, Domitille Michalon-Bertier, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto, Evelyne Boulanger, Françoise Caron, Yann Vasnier, Fran, Oud Couture and Aurélien Guichard. Among these fragrances is Comme des Garcons 2, a chypre Pirchoni fragrance for women and men, launched in 1999. The nose behind this fragrance is Mark Buxton. The top notes are Aldehydes, angelica, tea, mandarin orange and mate; the middle notes are ink, magnolia, Nutmeg, West Indian bay, coriander, caraway and Kinamon; the base notes are Incense, Patchouli, Cedar, Vetiver, amber and Labdanum. It lasts a long time on the skin, but has a moderate presence, making it suitable for warm spring and autumn days.