Comme des Garçons 1981-1986

Rei Kawakubo

1986

Published by Chikuma Sobo (Tokyo)

152 pages

29 x 36 cm

This is probably the most predictable book on the list. It is impossible to avoid Rei Kawakubo when discussing the most important books for fashion. The fact that it is inevitable does not mean I don’t like it. I think everything Kawakubo did was perfect, and Comme des Garçons is one of the few brands that have truly succeeded in interesting me. I don’t know what else to add beyond that. Once I had decided I would include a book by her, what was perhaps the hardest was to decide which one. In fact, they are all incredible. I am sure that the ones I don’t know are too. I chose this one because it seems to me the sincerest, the foundational book, the first and surely the purest. After five years it is tough to maintain the essence of anything. Yet there are two books that could also be included: Deyan Sudjic’s book of essays called Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons (Magazine House, 1991) or the more iconic Mémoire de la Mode (Korinsha Press, 1998).

Luis Cerveró