Comme des Garçons

Rei Kawakubo studied the history of aesthetics at Keio University, worked in advertising at the textile company Asahi Kasei and went freelance as a stylist before starting Comme des Garçons in Tokyo in 1969. The company was incorporated in 1973, the first boutique opened in 1975, and a men's line followed in 1978. Paris came in 1981. Her 1982 collection, known as Destroy, was savaged by critics, and it is still the show people argue about. Spring/Summer 1997, Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body, padded the clothes so they bulged where bodies do not, and in 2017 the Metropolitan Museum of Art gave her a full exhibition, Art of the In-Between. Our Comme des Garçons coverage runs from those collections to the heart with eyes. Filip Pagowski drew the logo for PLAY, which launched in 2002, and the PLAY Chuck Taylor with Converse arrived in 2009. Adrian Joffe, Kawakubo's husband, runs the company and Dover Street Market, which opened in London in 2004. The label also incubated Junya Watanabe, partnered with H&M in 2008 and turns up in our Stüssy, New Balance, Nike Dunk and Salomon stories. Odeur 53, an anti-perfume, came out in 1998.