{"id":27656,"date":"2025-08-29T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sneakerspirit.courir.com\/en\/?p=27656"},"modified":"2025-08-29T12:11:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:11:02","slug":"comme-des-garcons-black-a-color-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sneakerspirit.courir.com\/en\/comme-des-garcons-black-a-color-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Comme des Gar\u00e7ons\u2019 black, a color alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Since the 1980s, black has no longer been an absence of color. In <\/em>Rei Kawakubo\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> hands, it becomes a language. A space for experimentation and transgression. At <\/em>Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/em><\/strong>, this \u2018non-color\u2019 turns into a manifesto, a fertile ground for strange volumes, enigmatic silhouettes, and creations that blur the line between art and fashion. An immersion into a radical aesthetic where black, far from being neutral, reveals itself as vibrant, simmering, and above all unruly.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/strong> arrived in Paris in 1981 for its first Fashion Week show<\/strong>, Japanese fashion had yet to become an international phenomenon. Six years after opening her first boutique in Tokyo, Rei Kawakubo<\/strong> brought a new wave of energy to the French capital. A breath that has never ceased to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From that very first show, the tone was set<\/strong>: a pared-down palette, asymmetrical cuts, deliberately distressed fabrics. The shock was immediate. Black asserted itself not as an absence, but as a silent cry.<\/strong> The press spoke of \u2018Hiroshima chic\u2019; a debatable expression, yet one that revealed the aesthetic upheaval triggered by Kawakubo. Within just a few seasons, she became the emblem of the anti-fashion movement of the 1980s<\/strong>. A current that sought not to seduce, but to question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaking up the codes: clothing as language<\/strong>
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Behind Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/strong> lies a clear intention: to deconstruct<\/strong> what we think we know about clothing. Rei Kawakubo does not follow trends; she bends them, strips them down, and reassembles them anew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her, the body is not to be flattered, but to be questioned. Volumes are added<\/strong>, lines are distorted<\/strong>, asymmetries are explored. Clothing becomes a ritual<\/strong>, often reminiscent of a monastic wardrobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An emblematic example: the 1997 collection Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress<\/strong>. A striking reflection on the female body and motherhood. Inflated silhouettes, artificial lumps, unexpected forms. The body becomes a medium<\/strong>, a true playground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1980s, the press described Kawakubo\u2019s work as a \u2018New Wave Beauty<\/strong>.\u2019 A decentered, raw beauty<\/strong>, often seen as strange or unsettling through Western standards. For at Comme des Gar\u00e7ons, clothing is political<\/strong>, positioned at the crossroads of sociology<\/strong>, contemporary art,<\/strong> and textile experimentation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the performance goes far beyond clothing. Jean-Michel Basquiat<\/strong> walked for the brand in 1987. Later, it was cult actor-director Dennis Hopper<\/strong> who took to the runway. The casting itself became an artistic movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black, a neutral color?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More than an aesthetic choice, black becomes the signature of Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/strong>. It is even placed at the center of a dedicated line: Comme des Gar\u00e7ons Black<\/strong>, launched in 2009 amid the economic crisis, as a return to the brand\u2019s fundamentals.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from the idea of black as neutral, muted, or funereal, Rei Kawakubo treats it as a living material<\/strong>. She explores its many shades, from charcoal to blue-tinged black, from matte to glossy, from sheer to dense. As historian Michel Pastoureau<\/strong> puts it: \u2018Black is a fertile color.\u2019<\/em> And therein lies the paradox: a color long associated with death becomes, at Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/strong>, a symbol of life<\/strong>, creation, and raw energy. A blank field to be reimagined each season: in short, a space of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe black of Comme des Gar\u00e7ons also converses with other figures of avant-garde fashion, such as Yohji Yamamoto<\/strong> or Ann Demeulemeester<\/strong>, who likewise turned this shade into a tool of storytelling. For Kawakubo, black does not symbolize retreat but assertion. It offers a way to escape diktats, to dress without revealing. In this sense, it embodies a form of resistance<\/strong>, against over-consumption, against the ephemeral. A black that is full, dense, inhabited, clothing the spirit as much as the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Comme des Gar\u00e7ons, black questions, disturbs, provokes<\/strong>. It serves as the canvas for a radical vision of fashion, one where clothing seeks neither to flatter nor to reassure, but to make us think. In a world saturated with images and color, Rei Kawakubo continues to make black a manifesto: that of a fashion that is free, profound, and unruly.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since the 1980s, black has no longer been an absence of color. In Rei Kawakubo\u2019s hands, it becomes a language. A space for experimentation and transgression. At Comme des Gar\u00e7ons, this \u2018non-color\u2019 turns into a manifesto, a fertile ground for strange volumes, enigmatic silhouettes, and creations that blur the line between art and fashion. An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,122],"tags":[562,681,502,454,481,682],"class_list":["post-27656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brands","category-fashion","tag-comme-des-garcons","tag-comme-des-garcons-black","tag-fashion-week","tag-paris-fashion-week","tag-pfw-2","tag-rei-kawakubo","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nComme des Gar\u00e7ons\u2019 black, a color alive - Sneaker Spirit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cAt Comme des Gar\u00e7ons, black is a field of experimentation. 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