Comme des Garçons São Paulo Celebrates First Anniversary 

It’s like there’s a certain hush that descends on a shopping mall when something is going to be released. Lights go down early, and the glass is wiped clean one final time, and somewhere behind the curtain, a vision is being set up, piece by piece. In this week’s break, it was Comme des Garçons’ window installation at Iguatemi São Paulo that made the calendar look a little bit overcast. It’s one year of a Japanese home finally settling in Brazil, and of a city discovering what it lacks.

This upper level of Iguatemi São Paulo was a place of hope just a year ago. Today it’s a story that started in Tokyo in 1969 and now has a first chapter in Brazil, one marked by cutting-edge tailoring, deconstructed silhouettes and a rejection of rules by anyone else. If you don’t know how that story began, you should read up on Rei Kawakubo’s revolution in fashion before this Brazilian piece, as she redefined fashion before it even started.

A Year Since Comme des Garçons Arrived in Brazil

In June 2025, Comme des Garcons opened the doors of its first independent boutique in Latin America, without attracting much attention. Located in the upper level of the Iguatemi São Paulo, the 160-square-metre shop was never going to be a typical store opening. It was the first venture south of the equator for the brand, a calculated move, and one that was long awaited, that it has made into a market that it had been watching for years.

The difference in the moment was not the square footage, nor even the address, as Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima is quite replete in itself. It was the timing. With the same spirit that has always been at the heart of Comme des Garçons, the company made its debut with the company in S. Paulo, where creativity is heard loudest, and allows the work to speak first.

One year later, and that gut feeling has paid off, so much so that it’s time for a celebration of its own.

Rei Kawakubo Returns to the Window, This Time to Celebrate

There aren’t many designers who pay the same attention to their shop windows like Rei Kawakubo. In most cases, a storefront is a background in most brands. Makeover is always a canvas, to be composed with the same intention that Kawakubo takes to her runway collection. When it was announced that she personally created the design for the anniversary installation at Iguatemi São Paulo, it wasn’t a marketing ploy. It was exactly what long time fans of the brand would expect: the founder making the appearance, not a campaign for him.

This is important to remember. Here, Kawakubo has never delegated what makes up the core of what Comes has to offer, which is why, after 50 years, we have become cults of Comme des Garçons. For most retailers, a first anniversary is a discount code that appears in an email. For Comme des Garçons, it’s an occasion to get the Founder’s hands back on the glass. It’s the same instinct that caused her to hang one of her pieces in the midst of sculpture and fine art — in a centuries-old Venetian palazzo, where a Comme des Garçons piece stunned the visitors to an exhibition in Venice.

Four Lines, One Story: What the Window Holds

After walking past the installation you will see the full extent of what Comme des Garçons has offered Brazil during the last year. In addition to the house’s more focused menswear branch Comme des Garçons Homme Plus, which takes tailoring to new and edgier corners than most menswear, the mainline collection is also on display. The Comme des Garcons Shirt, the brand’s current ongoing conversation about classic shirting and disruption, and Comme des Garçons Pocket, the more compact, day-to-day version, are adjacent to him.

It’s not as though Comme des Garçons needed to say it loudly when they showed up in São Paulo: the brand didn’t test the waters in that city by releasing just a single capsule collection. It was time to plant something permanent, layered, and complete.

The installation was captured by photographer Flavio Teperman, beyond the spotlight of the profession, who has silently documented some of São Paulo’s most important fashion moments.

Why This Anniversary Means More Than a Year on the Calendar

This is no ordinary tale set against the backdrop of Iguatemi São Paulo. It was opened in 1966, the first Shopping mall in Brazil and it’s been a place where international luxury brands come to make their debut in Brazil for decades before Comme des Garçons even hit the high-five. Living alongside homes that have shaped global fashion for generations is its own type of endorsement and spending an entire year in their company is a more subdued, challenging testament to a brand’s right to be there.

After 12 months in a country as complex and multifaceted as Brazil, where a sense of confidence in one’s own self-expression is brewed into the fabric, it’s easy to see how well Comme des Garçons’ deconstructive approach and dedication to the concepts of gender fluidity and anti-trend have already cut through the noise. This anniversary is proving to be the culmination of the brand’s leadership’s musing on its longing for a place in Brazil, a sentiment it has expressed before.

Plan Your Visit to the Anniversary Window

In São Paulo, the installation is presented now in Iguatemi São Paulo, on the ground floor of the return streets of the building, in the vicinity of the hotel.In São Paulo it’s presented now at Iguatemi São Paulo, return streets of the building, ground floor, near the hotel, Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 2232, Piso Superior, Jardim Paulistano. It’s something that demands a slow stroll past, something to behold, particularly for those who have followed Kawakubo’s evolution over the years and would like to see her thinking re-imagined in a Brazilian setting for the first time.

The event is being streamed live via the social media channels of @commedesgarcons, which also have a dedicated page on @commedesgarconssaopaulo, and on Flavio Teperman’s social media @iguatemi365, where the usual smartphone camera in the mall will fail to record everything.

After one year, Comme des Garçons São Paulo does not request any discovery anymore. It’s simply asking to be visited. As the brand said it best: We look forward to seeing you.