Comme Des Garcons

Comme des Garcons is a Parisian fashion brand run by Rei Kawakubo, its owner. Rei Kawakubo is an avant-garde Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Her collection demonstrates 'anti-fashion' elements. It is so unique that in recognition of its contribution to the prominent design presence it was decided at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to dedicate a special exhibition to it. Rei Kawakubo was born on October 11, 1942 in Tokyo. Judith Thurman summed up her early life in Japan in a 2005 New Yorker article in which she: "She was the eldest of her parents' three children and only daughter ..." Her father was an administrator at Keio University, a prestigious institution founded by the great Meiji educator and reformer Fukuzawa Yukichi, who is considered the champion of Western culture and who has greatly promoted women's rights in Japan. Although not officially trained as a fashion designer, Kawakubo did study art and literature at Kayo University. And in 1960, Kawakubo enrolled in her father's university and completed a degree in 'History of Aesthetics', a major that included studies in Asian and Western art. After graduating in 1964, she started working in the advertising department at the textile company Asahi Kasei and at the same time worked as a freelance stylist. In 1969 she began designing and producing their own clothes under the label Comme des Garcons, and in French it meant "like the boys". Being one of the most influential designers in fashion, Rei Kawakubo strives to challenge the shape of the traditional garment. Kwakubo is the second honored living designer to have an exhibition of her work set up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Institute. The exhibition specifically addressed key themes that have inspired and continue to inspire her creativity as a designer in the context of the human form, and the body. As a designer she offers new ideas of beauty by creating organic shapes and bumps in her clothes, and creates costumes that throw away standard sizes, and she strives to completely ignore gender stereotypes, 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 show in the Met, her husband Adrian Joffe noted that this show will likely be her last since she is now 74. The two demonstrate an interesting married life while working together. While Joffe is based in Paris, his wife lives in Tokyo, in the upscale Aoyama neighborhood. Kawakubo is known as the first in the morning office and the last to leave. The Comme des Garcons brand has 97 perfumes at the base of its fragrances. Their earliest edition was created in 1994 and the newest is from 2021. Comme des Garcons fragrances were made in collaboration with perfumers Antoine Lie, Jean-Christophe Herault, Maurice Roucel, Mark Buxton, Antoine Maisondieu, Alienor Massenet, 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, Francoise Caron, Yann Vasnier, Fran, Marie-Aude Couture and Aurelien Guichard. Among these fragrances can be found the Comme des Garcons 2 perfume which is a Cypriot floral fragrance for women and men, which was launched in 1999. The nose behind this perfume is Mark Boxstone. Top notes are aldehydes, angelica, tea, mandarin orange and mate; Middle notes are ink, magnolia, nutmeg, bay of West India, coriander, caraway and cinnamon; Base notes are incense, patchouli, cedar, vetiver, amber and lebanom. It stays on the skin for a long time, but it certainly transmits a moderate presence suitable for warm spring and autumn days.