Rei Kawakubo (1942)

Rei Kawakubo

Rei Kawakubo is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. Although not formally trained as a fashion designer, Kawakubo did study fine arts and literature at Keio University. After graduation she worked in the advertising department at the textile company Asahi Kasei and she went on to work as a freelance stylist in 1967. Two years later, she began to design and make her own clothes under the label Comme des Garçons. In 1969, she established her own company, Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in Tokyo and opened up her first boutique there in 1975. Starting out with women's clothes, Kawakubo added a men's line in 1978. Three years later, she started presenting her fashion lines in Paris. Comme des Garçons specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments. Kawakubo likes to have input in all the various aspects of her business, rather than just focusing on clothes and accessories. She is greatly involved in graphic design, advertising, and shop interiors believing that all these things are a part of one vision and are inextricably linked.

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