Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons (also known as CDG) is a Japanese fashion label based in Paris founded by Rei Kawakubo.[1] Its French flagship store is located in Paris. The brand has physical retail stores in London, Melbourne, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York City and in the Aoyama district of Tokyo.[2] Other than fashion, the label has expanded to include jewelry and perfume (under the brand Comme des Garçons Parfums).[3]
Company type
Public company
1969
Adrian Joffe
CEO
Junya Watanabe
Designer
Tao Kurihara
Designer
Kei Ninomiya
Designer
800 est. (2011)
The company features its main collections during Paris Fashion Week and Paris Men's Fashion Week.[4] In 2017, it was reported that the company and its affiliates generated a revenue "of over $280 million a year".[5]
Perfume[edit]
The company also produces a line of agendered fragrances, most of which are unconventional in the world of perfume and aligned with the styles of its garments.[11]
The company released its first fragrance, Comme des Garçons, in 1994[12] and its first anti-perfume Odeur 53 in 1998.[13] The anti-perfume features a blend of 53 non-traditional scents which is rarely heard of in many other fragrance brands.[14]
The company also released the Luxe series Champaca, for which artist Katerina Jebb produced the visuals.
Adrian Joffe, the founder's husband and the CEO of the company, set up two companies. Comme des Garçons Parfums is for licensing some of the perfumes to Puig from 2002[15][16] and Comme des Garçons Parfums for selling the rest by its own.[17]
The company developed a unisex fragrance, G I R L, and released it on August 28, 2014.[18] Artist KAWS designed the bottle.[19]
In 2017, the company launched a new fragrance, Concrete and marked its launch in the US with a dinner curated by the artist and chef, Laila Gohar.
Controversies[edit]
1995: 'Auschwitz' Fashions[edit]
The 1995 "Sleep" collection consisted of striped pajamas "bearing prints of identification numbers and marks of military boot prints".[35] Contemporaneous media coverage juxtaposed images of the collection with images taken at Auschwitz concentration camp, and the controversy received international coverage.[36][37] The World Jewish Congress condemned the collection,[35] and fashion critic Suzy Menkes called the collection "'Auschwitz' fashions".[35][36] Kawakubo responded that the collection had been "completely misunderstood" and the controversy made her "very sad".[35]
2015: Guarachero Boots[edit]
The Spring/Summer 2015 menswear collection included "guarachero" boots based on the Mexican pointy boots of Matehuala, Mexico, raising concerns of cultural appropriation.[38][39]
2020: Black Hairstyles[edit]
In January 2020, a predominantly white group of models wore cornrowed lace-front wigs in the fall 2020 menswear show.[40] This was seen as the appropriation of Black culture, particularly with the use of traditionally Black hairstyles on non-Black models. Stylist Julien d'Ys responded on Instagram, "Dear all, my inspiration for the Comme Des Garçons show was Egyptian prince, A Look I found truly beautiful and inspirational. A look that was an hommage. Never was it my intention to hurt or offend anyone, ever. If I did I deeply apologize."[41]
Exhibitions[edit]
After the Paris début, the company exhibited photographs by Peter Lindbergh at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1986.[42] In 1990, it held an exhibition of sculpture. And again in 2005, it held an exhibition in Shinjuku, Tokyo of advertising and graphic designs.
In August 2010, the company opened a 19,000 square feet (1,800 m2) six-level flagship store in Seoul, South Korea featuring a branded art-exhibition space, its first outside Japan.[43]
In May 2017, Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York held a fashion exhibition with the theme Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons Art of the In-Between. This exhibition ran until September of the same year.[44][45]