Designs with prints of bricks have been a recurrent theme in the history of fashion. They appeared for example on the runways in the early '80s when Cinzia Ruggeri created her "Abito Muretto" (Wall Dress; Spring/Summer 1983 collection). The prints reappeared in 1997 in jackets by Moschino (View this photo) and the fashion house recycled the motif in the A/W 2012 menswear collection (View this photo). In the same season, the print was also used by Jean-Paul Gaultier for menswear (View this photo) and by Manish Arora in his womenswear designs (View this photo).
Yet, if you're Rei Kawakubo, you can't just do a brick wall, can you? For Comme des Garçons Homme Plus A/W 2018, that took place yesterday at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet, the Japanese designer borrowed the construction idea and turned it into a deconstructed tailored patchwork.
A comic book print was broken into rectangles and recollaged together in a new story framed by the wadding material you may find in the lining of quilts.
Kawakubo took more prints of water and oil drops, cracked surfaces of earth, fragments of stones, marble, pebbles and gravel and subjected them to the same treatment.
A jacket with a brick motif was instead collaged with a camouflage print; in another design the brick motif looked distorted thanks to a twisted pattern cutting.
In this section of the show all the models donned padded and patterned jackets matched with wide shorts, looks that were completed by huge white cotton dinosaur skull headpieces and masks made by Japanese fabric artist Shimoda Masakatsu (they hid minimal hairstyles - centre parted wigs and a low ponytail, at times in bold colours).
You could argue that the masks and the superhero cartoon prints maybe hinted at childhood and were an invitation not to grow up, yet the hints at architecture such as the aerial views (a bird's or a flying superhero's eye view?) of a concrete jungle in bright colours pointed to more mature themes such as surviving in a urban environment.
Cryptic Kawakubo provided a minimalist explanation for these inspirations with just four words - "Inner Rebel" and "White Shock". And while the first part of the show fitted with the rebel description, the second introduced a dystopian world in clinical white.
Padded jackets lost their protective aim and their diagonal closure and asymmetrical panels on shirts and skirts distorted the garments that at times became slightly reminiscent in their shape of straitjackets (some coats were left open in the back, calling to mind hospital gowns) and restraining clothes (the restraining theme actually contrasted with the loose silhouettes of the skirts and the wide-hip trousers that narrowed at the ankles).
Once combined with the wall theme of the first part of the show, the restraining motifs transformed into printed grids that hinted maybe at metaphysical forms of architectures à la Superstudio and into fragmented textile patterns on jackets.
Maybe the jackets were architectural references, or hints at the interior decor of the final bedroom bathed in a blinding white light in 2001: A Space Odyssey (a reference that also appeared in Jun Takahashi's latest show) or, who knows, ways to mimick armours and devices to protect the body and the mind from the forces of darkness that surround us (is Kawakubo a Star Wars fan?).
The white palette was also applied to the shoes - sporty low top sneakers that were the result of a collaboration with Brazilian brand Melissa.
While it was possible to read the collection from a socio-political point of view (think about the theme of walls and boundaries in our society...), as usual, hidden behind the masks, it featured wearable and timeless pieces.
Looks like Kawakubo's fragmented wall is not a negative one à la Donald Trump, but the sort of wall the Pet Shop Boys sang about in their 2009 track "Building a Wall", "a fine wall" designed not to exclude, but to protect and help someone to escape from the tribulations and woes of the world.
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