The Costume Institute's spring 2017 exhibition will examine the work of Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. The thematic show will feature approximately 150 examples of Kawakubo's womenswear for Comme des Garçons dating from the early 1980s to her most recent collection. The galleries will illustrate the designer's revolutionary experiments in "in-betweenness"—the space between boundaries. Objects will be organized into eight aesthetic expressions of interstitiality in Kawakubo's work: Fashion/Anti-Fashion, Design/Not Design, Model/Multiple, Then/Now, High/Low, Self/Other, Object/Subject, and Clothes/Not Clothes. Kawakubo breaks down the imaginary walls between these dualisms, exposing their artificiality and arbitrariness. On view from May 4 to September 4, 2017 at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Dover Street Market Holds An Open House During Fashion and Art Week Featuring JK5, Willy Vanderperre and More
At DSMNY’s Fashion Week Open House on Thursday, the store introduced some amazing installations: a ground floor installation designed by exciting new Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele introduces Gucci’s Cruise 2016 collection, longtime Raf Simons collaborator and photographer Willy Vanderperre was hanging out signing copies of his new IDEA book ‘636,’ London heritage label Labour and Wait launched its first US shop within the walls of DSMNY, designer Jeanne Signoles was in store celebrating the US launch of her luxe-meets-function bag brand L/Uniform, and John Galliano’s first collection for Maison Margiela was commemorated with a visual installation calling back to Martin Margiela’s famous experiments with paint. All of these installations and appearances were fantastic; Rei Kawakubo accepts no less. But it was particularly heart-warming to see one of my favorite artists (and full disclosure, good friend) JK5, aka Joseph Ari Aloi, giving birth to his installation on DSMNY’s 5th floor. Read the full review here. photographs by Tenlie Mourning
Rei Kawakubo and Matt Groening