As seen in a previous post, some designers may react to the feelings of anger and frustration they may be experiencing in their lives using dark and somber tones in their collections, but Rei Kawakubo seems to prefer a colourful resistance.
Comme des Garçons Homme Plus A/W 2020, showcased during the menswear shows in Paris, was the first collection after last year's trilogy that started with the S/S 20 menswear collection, continued with the S/S 20 womens' show and culminated in the costumes for Olga Neuwirth's "Orlando", that debuted in December in Vienna.
In this trilogy Kawakubo explored gender identity, duality, freedom of opinion and the possibility of breaking the rules imposed on people by society.
For Comme des Garçons' Homme Plus A/W 2020 Kawakubo focused instead on less intense and more playful moods: in some cases models donned layered looks, in others colourful fabrics were integrated in the same jacket, creating optical illusions and giving the impression the models were wearing more than one garment or were wearing a jacket inside out.
Jackets came in colourful patchwork motifs, clashing animal prints such as leopard spots in bold and bright shades, stripes and checks, plaids and Harlequin diamond patterns.
You wonder if the colourful or black and white rhombuses were a way to hint at the fact that "Commedia dell'Arte" references and moods often resurface in times of crisis or if the way the models seemed to wear inside out jackets and coats, revealing their colourful patterns and textures was a reference to the Edo period (when sumptuary law banned bright colours and people opted for gorgeous patterns in the lining of their garments), yet Kawakubo didn't explain much about these references.
Among the highlights of the collection there were the jackets, but also the versatile knits in colourful geometrical patterns and geometrical blocks of colours, matched with surreal necklaces decorated from long wigs.
There was instead a major faux pas in the collection for what regarded the hairstyle: models wore bleach blond, black or two-tone braided wigs and people on social media soon accused the brand of cultural appropriation.
Kawakubo collaborator Julien d'Ys explained on his Instagram page that the wigs were an attempt at recreating the styles of Ancient Egypt and Tutankhamun, so they were supposed to be a homage to an iconic Egyptian pharaoh.
Unfortunately, though, the fact that there mainly white models in the show, and two out of three black models wore their hair naturally, only ended up reinforcing the cultural appropriation accusations, so that should have been avoided.
Kawakubo's passion for the energy of bright and bold colours was also celebrated in Comme des Garçons Shirt's collection.
Kawakubo continued in the collection her experiments on deconstructing men's shirts, jackets and coats, that were spliced, cut, reassembled and reworked in fascinating ways.
She also turned to a collaborator for her garments – American graffiti artist Leonard Hilton McGurr, better known as Futura – while accesory-wise there was a collaboration with Asics.
Known for his work as illustrator and graphic artist and for the painted backdrops live on-stage for punk rock band The Clash in the early '80s, McGurr collaborated with the brand last year doing a drop for "CDG Black Market" pop-up.
Futura's colourful 1980s archive artwork was replicated on jackets and shirts: the best results were obtained when the shirts were deconstructed and reconstructed in classic Kawakubo style.
Some of them were reinvented with a latticed motif, in other cases circular cut-outs were carved out of the fabric, creating multiple layers of fabrics and pocket-like spaces in the designs.
In a way, this offer – still conceptual and arty, but more functional and practical – seemed to go down better than the Homme Plus A/W 2020 collection with its tribute to Egyptian pharaohs that ended up causing a rather unpleasant controversy.