Wakubo Rei: The Sufferings Of A Punk

"To some extent, I feel trapped," hesitated Wakubo Rei (Rei Kawakubo). She was immersed in her thoughts and looked puzzled: "but I can't stop."

Perplexity? Perhaps torture is closer to the truth.

For Wakubo Rei, talking about his work is never easy.

As everyone knows, she has been silent. Now, this seems to be the real supplement to the work itself and the company Comme des Gar ons, which was founded nearly half a century ago.

At first, it was only a means to solve practical problems.

Wakubo Rei was a stylist before, but she could never find what she wanted to use in filming.

So she decided to go on her own.

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"The premise of my establishment of this company is that I always try to find something that does not exist or something new."

This is Comme des Gar ons, which insists on 48 years of "inner value" or "soul".

Chuan Chuan Bao Ling also fought with himself for such a long time.

"Because I am the kind of person who decides what to do and will stick to it, so once I set up this premise at the very beginning, I will continue to do it. In the whole process, the values do not wag, which makes it even more difficult.

The more I do, the more people expect; the more I experience, the harder it is to find anything new.

But this is something I will never change. It is not Comme des Gar ons.

I don't know what it will become.

I did not say that I was going to create a career that brought me great pain.

Wakubo Rei loves punk.

Let's quickly play back her career, and the DIY punk spirit that despised everything is constantly repeating itself.

So this is part of the basic contradiction of Comme des Gar ons, and she gave it to her.

A firm dagger drawn by the established rules.

One season, another season, ten years and ten years, she displays a spring and summer series every year, an autumn and winter series, women's wear and men's wear.

And it's getting harder and harder.

Of course, she can break the stereotypes like everyone else, such as her peers Azzedine Ala a, only when she wants to show it, otherwise it will not matter if she does less than one season.

But she believed that once she stopped, she would never start again.

"I've never seen anyone who did a good rest after a while," she said. "Absolutely, in fashion."

In addition, she insisted that the strict restraint of fashion schedules is an essential part of self-discipline.

"Next time...

Next time...

If I don't catch up with myself and ask myself when to start the next thing, I will never be able to do it again. "

This morning, we met Wakubo Rei at the Paris Office of Comme des Gar ons.

As usual, Adrian Joffe, husband of Comme des Gar ons, who spent 26 years in marriage with her, was also present.

Joffe is extremely sensitive to her often hesitant speech patterns and serves as her interpreter.

Like all the designers around us, he is also like us to confirm that creation is a very painful process for Wakubo Rei.

When she really creates something, this pain can be dissipated.

"It seems that I can only create this way," she agreed. "I can never decide what to do, even if the last minute before the start of the conference, all of them hang together.

I never said, "Okay, I got it."

Never before. "

Maybe that's what it used to be.

Three words are used to define Comme des Gar ons ons. What will you choose? I will choose zero (Zero), new (New) and freedom (Freedom).

Zero is because she is pursuing new and nonexistent things all her life. Freedom is obviously the essential essence of this exploration process.

But there are two faces in freedom: "there is freedom not to do something" (Freedom from), "there is freedom to do something" (Freedom to), and the two can not escape from the burden.

As early as many years ago, the famous psychoanalyst Erich Frome (Erich Fromm) has made a definition. His masterpiece Escape from Freedom is nothing less than today's 1941 when he became a book.

For Frome, freedom and suspicion are exactly the same, real freedom thoughts arouse anxiety.

Obviously, he never met Wakubo Rei, the freest fashion designer, but she is no doubt an excellent example of his theory.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, the most recent source of anxiety for Wakubo Rei is the exhibition opened in May 4th at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York, entitled Art of The In-Between ("art in between"). "Museum"

Throughout the 70 year history of Metropolitan Museum of Art, this is the first exhibition with the theme of a single living designer.

This is the first time Wakubo Rei has agreed to put his name on such a project.

Why is it now? "The timing is right," she answered briefly.

Others are logical.

She had never been interested in reviewing her past, so she also hated the traditional artists' retrospective forms.

The curator, Andrew Bolton, first talked to her about this. She hoped that the exhibition would be enough for the past 4 years, that is, the 8 fashion series from the spring and summer series in 2014. She changed everything in Comme des Gar ons ons with the 2014 spring and summer series.

At that time, she touched the wall.

Back to zero, no output.

She yearns for another kind of consciousness, which is all good, as long as it is not her own -- "outsider" artist, autistic, schizophrenic, mental patient.

"How do I get these things out of my mind?" she asked Joffe.

It's not very feasible to make herself mad. After that, she came to the conclusion that I would never do any more clothes, and I would never try.

Not Making Clothing ("no shirt") is the name she gave to the spring and summer series in 2014.

From then on, she did not make "clothes", and every subsequent press conference overturned the most familiar form and functional utility of fashion.

"This is the only way to remain self," she insisted.

In the same way, this is the only way she can imagine making a show in a museum.

"But later on, the whole thing went a little far away, which was a little different from what was originally thought," Chuan long admitted. "I wasn't very happy at the beginning.

I never want to do retrospective exhibitions, but in the end, it looks like a retrospective exhibition.

You can have it.

This is a Metropolitan Museum of Art exclusive publication of Comme des Gar ons, not a Commes des Gar ons conference held at the Metropolitan Museum of art.

Or compromise.

Most importantly, we finally agreed to exhibit some old styles. "

The final anchoring of this exhibition is that Bolton will make curatorial exhibitions with his "old". The way to create museum exhibitions in Sichuan is "unprecedented. I don't want to show clothes in other people's space."

Along with "Art of the In-Between", there are also new publications coming out. The book contains the attractive rendering of the exhibition without opening space, such as the design of the maze, which explains the concept of Bolton in the preface and the foundation stone of Chuan Jiu Bao Ling's Aesthetics: "no" (meaning "empty"), "inter" ("space"), and "Silence" (wabi-sabi, for the asymmetrical, irregular and imperfect Zen Aesthetics).

When he outlined these very sentimental concepts at the Paris exhibition media preview in January this year, I thought Bolton was slowly guiding Sichuan for a long time.

"I can understand most of the plation of Andrew," she responded, "some I agree, some are not.

In the process of cooperation in the Metropolitan Museum of art, I know it will be.

The curator's view is his interpretation within our permitted framework.

We trust him and he trusts us. "

She once said that she was more inclined to interpret the concept of conspiracy as "collaboration".

What she described to me was "going deep into the surface and turning things upside down".

The book contains a pcript of the dialogue between Sichuan and Bolton, showing the insights of this conspiracy theory to a certain extent.

You can only think of two different faces of freedom.

Wakubo Rei will be an unmatched fighter, which is why her insecurity is surprising.

"Are you sure that those who do not know the Comme des Gar ons will also come?" she asked the audience of the art gallery. "I don't think anyone will come."

I reminded her by using Alexander McQueen's amazing exhibition at the art museum and the number of visitors attracted by it.

"Not because McQueen is more famous?" no, not at all.

At that time, I went to the exhibition to chat with a pair of elderly Hawaii couples. They said they were attracted to the museum by the museum at the very beginning, and finally they were completely fascinated by the exhibition.

It will also happen at Wakubo Rei's exhibition.

"A new audience?" she thought. "This is the significance of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of art.

I hope to introduce new aesthetics to people and tell them that there are different ways and values to appreciate beauty in the world. Their existence is based on each other.

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The same kind of exploratory tone in her tone also appeared in the latest fashion conference called "the outline of the future".

At the press conference, the sculptural shapes, representing the "original" and "future", were carefully moved along the rising stage of the pink stage.

This is much more than that of Chuan Chang's usual press conference.

In theatrical colors, models usually walk directly on the ground without any unnecessary tricks.

Joffe explains that this is because the Metropolitan Museum of art has announced that there will be exhibitions and more people want to apply for the show, so we need to set up a stage for everyone to see clearly.

Wakubo Rei reluctantly agreed, but to make sure that the stage was made of primitive triangles and pink, "it's even more beautiful."

10 minutes before the start of the conference, she instructed the models to take advantage of the whole stage: "be aware of each other's existence, and do some communication."

If you just go up and down, it's hard for you to express a lot of things.

As usual, just to understand what she wants to express by the press conference, she may be able to reflect many ways of interpretation.

"Has this meaning been good?" she wasn't sure.

She had no idea at all.

"Until I start the next season, I don't know how well I did last season.

It's hard for me to judge.

Whenever you ask me, I don't know if I can make the next season.

It's really painful. "

Pain again.

Perhaps this is the mental state of the unknown sea area marked "in the meantime" exhibition.

Under the Bolton plan, the exhibition contrasts the elements of the two poles: fashion / anti fashion, design / no design, time / now, snow / Yangchun, self / others, object / subject, clothing / non clothing.

Any effort to reconcile the two may be enough to simulate the anxiety of Sichuan's long career career.

This is also unavoidable. Her company, which is based on financial independence, tends to strike a delicate balance between her ideas and needs, her creativity and her business.

"This is a contradiction," she admits. "I want to free myself, always find new things, but at the same time, I hope my company can succeed. I can grow, pay employees, take care of our factories and hire more people."

So, as she said, you can't stop, because it will not only disappoint those who expect and need to see her vision, but also her commitment to mental and physical health for everyone who works for herself.

There are more fundamental paradoxes: radical vision and traditional vision of motherhood.

If she did not feel any guesses about sex, maybe she would be "the mother of a family."

When I asked if her so-called pain was related to the creative power of a certain woman, the pain of creating life, she replied, "I don't think it matters. Many men will also give birth to new ideas."

By the way, her brand name is "comme des Hommes".

So maybe I will look at Wakubo Rei more from tribal perspective, like Shamanism.

This fits well with the spiritual level of Comme des Gar ons.

The most profound poles are life / death.

The soul moves between poles.

Japanese folklore believes that Japan is one of the most haunted places on earth.

When a person dies, a strong "reikon" is released.

My own point of departure is not very relevant to her, but I also feel that this has a subconscious connection with the "living in it" exhibition.

That is, her way of design is not in front of you, but behind you.

Like a soul.

Wakubo Rei's insistence on his most basic commonality will no doubt make viewers who come to visit "the art in between" seem abnormal in the extraordinary design environment.

She will hardly become an artist who has been cherished by her own work of art.

But you can also deduce her own appearance from various comments in the past decades.

She loves animals, architecture, food, tourism and hot springs.

It is not surprising that she likes the works of directors such as Tarkovski, Tarkovksy (Angelopoulos) and Pasolini (Pasolini), which are complex and dark, but it is surprising that she likes Angelopoulos.

She also likes to read biographies.

"She was almost interested in politics," her husband added.

Her respect for tradition, love for reality, and her uniform of love are obvious. This is what her series continues to be.

She also created her own uniform: The Aoyama bag has been on the shelf for 20 years.

Nevertheless, every coming fashion season will send Wakubo Rei a painful invitation, because she once again completes the impossible challenge: let herself live in it and explore again.

"The man who tries to measure the infinite" is a memorable summary of Robin by Givhan.

This brings to mind the urgency of the time. In front of the more than 70 year old designer who still needs to charge more than $280 million a year, aging is a problem.

Today, Comme des Gar ons ons brand has ten series, multi brand retail business Dover Street Market is in the limelight.

"We have been growing very fast in the past few years," Joffe said. "The only way to grow is to develop horizontally, because Bao Ling is very aware that the market of the main line of fashion is very limited."

He also believes that other designers under the umbrella of Comme des Gar ons, such as Watanabe Junya Junya Wantanabe and Ninomiya Kei's Noir Kei Ninomiya, will also ensure that the company will continue to flourish in the future, even if he understands that there is no other Chuan Long Bao Ling in the world.

At the same time, she is still very concerned about every detail of her own fashion empire.

If she can give designers anything in her stable creative freedom, it is to participate in other strategies.

But Joffe says she is preparing for a world without Wakubo Rei.

Although there is an exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of art, her own creative wealth is less important to her than the company's future well-being.

But she gave the answer: "the timing is right."

You can be grateful that Wakubo Rei will be nervous about the exhibition.

A song of swan? A gong for life's achievement? No.

Remember, she said, is it impossible to stop? She spent decades raising people's expectations, and constantly torturing herself to meet this expectation.

This exhibition is a statement that clearly explains what has been done in Sichuan Province for a long time. Its function is a glorious practice of managing expectations.

The timing is too good to be better.

If she can't stop, at least now she's free to do something...

I also hope that this will enable her to have the freedom to do something else...

This trap is open.

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