Comme Des Garcons Womens FW09 Paris

[editevening]

is it weird to be super impressed with how the lighting on the headwrap creates such a prominent contrast in the head-to-body silhouette?

[laika]

^not at all. it might be weird if i dye my hair pink, though.

Here is Cathy's review from On the Runway.

For any number of reasons, many things in fashion look dated. Magazines look dated. Stores look dated. Lots of clothes look dated, including many we saw only yesterday. We’ve seen talented designers put forward craft and savoir faire, like Alber Elbaz with a super Lanvin collection. And many others have surprised us by moving in a new or more accessible direction, like Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga with his satin drapery and John Galliano with his Persian motifs at Dior. But while these collections show a great deal of hard work and focus — as you’d expect, given the daunting economic picture — we feel somehow they are not very ambitious. They are almost too easy to understand. The mastery of a particular dressmaking technique, however pleasing the result, is not proof of an extraordinary sensibility. Indeed, after marveling at a technique we gradually come to realize that it’s still the same old technique and that really nothing has changed or improved our understanding of fashion. We feel empty, in fact.
Tonight, in her Comme des Garcons show, Rei Kawakubo used all the traditional techniques. She had drapery and tailoring, and she was aware of creating an attractive silhouette, as many designers have been this season. Yet where the brilliant Ms. Kawakubo parted company with the rest is her powerful sensibility. It is always in control. She opened with tent dresses in pale beige tulle and others in olive drab, the models’ faces covered by strips of tulle embroidered with a single red sequin smudge, as if from a kiss. The models’ hair looked like balls of fuchsia yarn, and they wore tulle leggings that sagged like limp nylons.
With those basic elements — and basically weird elements — Ms. Kawakubo began to express the notion that “nothing is as it appears,” as she characterized her purpose later backstage.
The olive drab tent became a canvas for a jacket pattern, drawn in black lines with dots to mark buttons. In the next incarnation there was a poncho coat that combined a rose wool plaid with the top half of a khaki trench coat. Another poncho coat, in a bold black-and-white check, had a square corner of olive drab near the hem. From a shapeless mass of fabric, then, she found the elements she needed to produce not merely tailored and draped garments but also a series of beautiful silhouettes. Her most effective results were with the tulle. She used it to literally encase or trap layers of cream pleated dresses, creating a single garment. These were ingenious: long, slim dresses with feminine frills, including strands of pearls, held and compressed by a tulle skin. The show, presented in the round, ended with a bittersweet version of the song “Mad World.”
Maybe it’s no surprise that Ms. Kawakubo has been responsible for a number of the truly emotional experiences in fashion. This was another of those occasions. The applause was loud and long. The designer did not come out, of course. She almost never does. When I got backstage, she was waiting alone, staring at something on the floor. She had on an olive drab jacket and sunglasses that blended with her shiny hair.

[zamb]

I really like alot of this, and I haven't liked a Comme collection in a looong time!
the clothes, especially the tailored pieces are really wonderful (maybe because they are along the lines that I am thinking).......I am not really moved by the head pieces though.

[pipcleo]

this is truly beautiful
from losing confidence in comme after so many hapless collections it is a joy to finally see her rework her magic.
Everything is there... so many silhouettes... where rick showed one
so many colors ...where rick showed two
and so many fabrics....where rick showed three (?)
and this really does serve to show the mundanity of ricks womens show

Now if she can only do to man what she has done to women.
Dont want to bash rick as his mens was brilliant but credit where its due

[laika]

^ very effectively said, pipcleo.

it would not cross my mind to compare Rei to Rick, but by doing so, you illustrate so well what i've been struggling to get across in the RO thread.

I'll just repost what i said at tfs, since i haven't formulated any more thoughts yet.

I feel like this is the collection i've been wanting her to do for ages.
It strongly recalls early cdg in its simplicity--the muted palette, the cropped knits, the plain sheer overlays
But she's also exploring the concept of outerwear and of layering itself in a way i haven't quite seen her do before. I really feel like she is at her best when is working through an issue of construction in a purely formal way.

Lovely, lovely collection...it will be the first season in some time that as a CDG customer, i'm not bypassing Rei for Tao and Junya.

[gerry]

Thank you so much for the larger pictures Laika I swear this entire collection is something I would see in a dream.

[Faust]

I am not feeling much of this :-(. Many awkward proportions. I do like the simpler pieces though, and the outfit with the beads looks awesome.

[Johnny]

I love this. Faust you are right it does look very awkward in places and I think anyone wearing it head to toe in real life would look, well, odd (or well-odd). Having said that, I find real beauty in the gauzy floaty-ness, the intricate construction, the muted colours, the tactile cozy fabrics, the lumps and bumps and, in places, the harsh mixes of all of these. It echoes back to some of her older collections more based on dense fabric and draping, with abstract flashes of colour. I sense a real ease in how these clothes were conceived - like she hit a groove or something - and I think that's been missing from some, more forced, collections recently. This is cdg's best since the witches, and maybe better than that.

BTW Faust totally agree on Junya. Snore. He's in a bit of a rut. As distinct from a groove......

[Faust]

I can definitely see where you are coming from.

[laika]

Honestly, the proportions don't even cross my mind when I look at this. Odd proportions are a given with CDG. But the way she spliced all these tactile and constructive elements together must rightfully be called genius. The complexity of each piece unfolds to the eye as you see it from different angles. I'll try and post some shots from the back later.

I want to wear all the knits and a bunch of the sheer pieces....so cozy and angelic.

[paprik]

this is priceless, would love to see every woman dress like this. drool

[Johnny]

this is priceless, would love to see every woman dress like this. drool

just one would do!!