A few days ago, Comme Des Garcons’ creative lead and designer extraordinaire had the world’s vogue press present at a conference as regards the Costume Institute’s highly anticipated exhibit ; Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: The Art of the In-between. Details have been revealed about what to expect at the exhibition set to open in May 2017. Rei Kawakubo, 74, who is the first living designer to be recognized since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 is said to be joining forces with Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Met for the museum’s upcoming exhibition Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between.
Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between will examine Kawakubo’s exploration of space linking boundaries. From the exhibition’s press release; “This in-between space is revealed in Kawakubo’s work as an aesthetic sensibility, establishing an unsettling zone of oscillating visual ambiguity that challenges conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability.”
Set to feature around 150 pieces of Kawakubo’s work for Comme des Garçons dating back from the 80s, the exhibition will be curated by Andrew Bolton, who provided a glimpse of what to expect, with a first peek at a few of its pieces come May 4. Kawakubo whose works can be described as flummoxing as she once said to interview magazine ‘the void is important” puts a slight pressure on Bolton to explain to the non-savvies why the fashion world is so taken by CDG; “Rei Kawakubo is one of the most important and influential designers of the past 40 years. By inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation, and hybridity, she has defined the aesthetics of our time.”. The exhibition has been divided into 8 sections; “Fashion/Anti-Fashion”; “Design/Not Design”; “Model/Multiple”; “Then/Now”; “High/Low”; “Self/Other”; “Object/Subject”; and “Clothes/Not Clothes”.
Kawakubo spoke on the retrospective exhibition saying; “I have always pursued a new way of thinking about design by denying established values, conventions, and what is generally accepted as the norm. And the modes of expression that have always been most important to me are fusion, imbalance, unfinished, elimination, and absence of intent.”
Speaking on the exhibition, The director and CEO of The Met, Thomas P Campbell, said “Curator Andrew Bolton will explore work that often looks like sculpture in an exhibition that will challenge our ideas about fashion’s role in contemporary culture.” The opening of the exhibition will be celebrated at the Met Gala which is set to take place on Monday, May 1 this year. As aforementioned, Gisele Bündchen and husband Tom Brady, Katy Perry, and Pharrell Williams, will join American Vogue editor Anna Wintour as honorary chairs for the event. Rei Kawakubo herself and ambassador Caroline Kennedy will also be joining the board.
Images C/O Vogue.com
Andrew Bolton On Rei KAwakubo’s Art & CDG’s Upcoming Exhibition, WATCH HERE
This article was originally published on BlanckDigital.com
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