Comme Des Garçons: Untold History & Rei Kawakubo’s Story

Posted by Team Comme des Garcons

August 10, 2026

On May 20, 2026

Fashion has rules. Everyone follows them. But, one woman was not to. Rei Kawakubo was a clothes designer not like any other. She went up against all the notions of fashionable. She felt bad. What did she whet their appetites for? From the discomfort, she created a work which nobody had seen before. It’s a Comme Des Garçons Fairy Tale. And it’s not any kind of brand tale you have ever perused.

A Designer Who Never Followed the Rules

Rei Kawakubo was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1942. In fact, her family wasn’t a fashion family at all. She has studied at Keio University, studying Literature and Fine Arts. No fashion school. No mentor. And No rulebook.

Well, that’s a secret of her’s’.

She was part of fashion in the late Sixties and she added something no one else added. A brand new eye. She was not aware of what she should do with the clothes. But she didn’t limit her dreams as to what they should look like.

The majority of the designers of her time sought to create beauty. Kawakubo desired to pose questions. She wanted to get people to take notice of her clothes and more than just that. She desired them to be mentally active. Be somewhat confused. Perhaps even touched.

I don’t believe that it’s fair for women to wear their clothes for the gratification of others. Not men. Not society. And Not tradition. She made her designs for one person, a girl.

It was more than a brand mentality, it was a brand way of thinking. It helped to trigger a movement.

From Tokyo Streets to a Global Brand

It was in 1969 that Rei Kawakubo launched his brand Comme Des Garçons in Tokyo.

French name. Its usage is ‘similarly to boys’. It was never, however, one of “women in men’s clothes. It was a statement. A tacit protest against the notion that women’s attire should be beautiful, supple and fetching.

In 1975 she started her first boutique in Tokyo. This wasn’t the same store at all. No bright lights. No loud displays. Clothes that you were like, “huh?”. People noticed. The word got out… but, the word got out. By the late ’70’s, she was popular in Japan. Fed up with fashion that told them who to be, women. Women who desired to wear clothes to be. Kawakubo wasn’t going with the “fashion. She was constructing an object using roots. Something that would last for a quite extended period of time and not for just a season.

The Fashion World Had Never Seen Anything Like This

The one word to describe Comme Des Garcons: Honesty. As for black, Kawakubo said it was not something that she chose because of its “stylish” appeal, but because it was something “real.” Its detached position evokes the rags and its leaves shape. Only idea. Only the truth.

She was regarded to have an “Avant-garde” style. Critics’ descriptions of the book were some that were deconstructed, raw and unconventional. In fact, what they said is that she made clothing which no one had made before.

Frayed edges. Asymmetric cuts. Unsatisfactory body shapes, shapes that were not fitting to the body, that did not touch the body. But it’s layering as it’s going, but almost random and yet with a great sense of purpose!

She felt that it was no fault if something wasn’t perfect. It was at its purest, it was beautiful. The world had been decades on the hunt for polish and perfection of fashion. But, Kawakubo chose to buck the trend and, well, things haven’t been the same since.

Not only had she put her clothes on her body. They started conversations. Others enjoyed them. Many didn’t understand them, though. However, they couldn’t be forgotten.

One Show That Changed Fashion History

April 1981. Paris Fashion Week.

Rei Kawakubo’s collection was hosted in the Intercontinental Hotel. Not many people were in the audience. But, the activity that took place in that room changed the face of fashion. Oversized, dark and draped clothing could be seen being worn by models. Nothing was fitted. No more old-fashioned method of making it look good. The clothes appeared to be in poor condition. Deliberately unfinished. Deeply personal.

Once there was a time when no one could hear. It was at that moment that answers began to come. Some critics termed it “shocking. Some said that it was “ugly.” It was so powerful, one journalist went so far as to dub it Hiroshima chic. It was extremely traumatic for all of us.

But not all were disheartened. There were some people who knew that they were witnessing anything historic in that room. Previously fashion had been disturbed. NEVER in such a way. It’s that type of focus and commitment that you’ll never see again.

One show helped to raise Comme Des Garcons to international prominence. Kawakubo didn’t ask for any authorization. She never did. However, she wasn’t overlooked.

When Iconic Brands Came Knocking

Things started to happen over at Comme Des Garçons, as it continued to expand.

Kawakubo’s is a design that appeals to the world’s largest brands. Not like CDG was the most businesslike brand. However, there was a little money I couldn’t buy. A genuine identity.

Nike came calling. Then Supreme. Then Chrome hearts, Stussy, North Face and anything else you can think of! Each and every of the partnerships has been a surprise. They were both about a new world they created at CDG that was infused with raw creative energy.

The key to the partnerships was very simple. The vision of “CDG” never was forgotten. All partnerships it did were different and it couldn’t possibly not have made the result its own. But, of course, that Nike sneaker that Kawakubo held in her hand was CDG.

The connections enabled the brand to connect with individuals who don’t normally visit a CDG shop. Streetwear fans. Comme des Garcons Sneakers collectors. Those who loved the heart design on a Play t-shirt, without ever realizing the extent that it represented.

The collabs weren’t a weak factor of CDG. It was they who increased its boundaries.

More Than a Brand — A Whole Fashion Universe

Comme Des Garçons is a question of ‘not one thing.

Kawakubo’s lines for the family over the years were all unique, yet filled with creativity.

This was mostly popular with the most popular being CDG Play. It is one of the most recognizable logos in the fashion world, a little heart with big eyes. Simple. Playful. Impossible to ignore.

Comme des Garcons Shirt is the first company that has developed the concept of creativity in the simplest of fabric: shirts. A plain shirt, which is transformed into a shirt to think with. CDG Homme Plus got the opportunity to be a little bit bewildered with the guys. There’s no loss of any “specialness” in CDG and each line has their own supporters.

Next were perfumes. Perfumery, the most CDG-esque of activities, is one where Kawakubo has started to experiment, since the ’90s. No sweet florals. No safe and popular comme des garcons perfume, Rather, she started to invent perfumes with the fragrance of tar, ink, and wood smoke and industrial effects. Odors that are not physical, but rather they make people feel a way that they would not normally feel.

There were some who just didn’t care for them. They had proved to be very addictive to some individuals. But it was always about that anyway – they were never going to be missed.

Why the World Still Talks About Comme Des Garçons

The stores that CDG operates have been renamed as guerrilla stores for 2004. Informal, temporary and fleeting spaces that sprang from unplanned cities around the world and disappeared after a year. No permanent address. No long-term commitment. It’s only a fleeting instant. CDG is acknowledged for coining the “pop up store” idea which is now widely used.

The Dover Street Market was something quite new, when it was realized in London in 2004. Store like area, such as an art gallery. In which place style and creativity were crossed; style had no limits, as well as creativity.

In 2017 the whole exhibition was celebrated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in its own Costume Institute. Only one of the 2nd designers is still alive and was so honored. The name that they used for the show was Art of the In-Between. It spoke about her, and her work.

The one thing that Rei Kawakubo didn’t need was fame. It is something not asked for by her.

Create, question, challenge, she just went on. After that, it seemed as though all came to a halt.

Comme Des Garçons is more than a fashion brand, it’s a way of life. What an amazing tribute to a creative individual to be able to do that and still stick to his/her vision regardless of how strange or awkward it may sound, or how it may look.