The Real Meaning Behind the Name Comme des Garcons
A few names are simply brand names. They’re good to have, good to look at on a label and that is all they are. Once you’ve seen them, they are gone and you don’t think about them again. But there are names which embrace the entire universe with them. Names which appear as if given after a long, silent night’s thought. It’s As If It Was The Girls. A transformation takes place when it is heard. It’s different from all other brand names available. It is like poetry, it’s like a secret, it’s like a thing you never felt you could fully understand throughout all the time. It’s a serious matter. A texture. A mood. In fact, it’s the very feeling that Rei Kawakubo had in mind when she made her choice. This article isn’t just about a French word which appears on a label. It’s about the woman behind it, the time in history that created it, the music that created it and the meaning that silently transformed fashion forever.
What Does Comme des Garcons Actually Mean
Literally, the French translation of Comme des Garcons is ‘like the boys‘. That is it. Three words. One small phrase. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this was easy, it wasn’t in the early 1960s when a woman was expected to wear clothes “like the boys. It was a statement. It was nearly but not quite rebellious. A very strong condemnation of the “rigidly cut and fitted” dresses, the “pearls” and the “heels”, the women were supposed to wear in those times.
Without needing to do anything to please others through the art of dressing up women are free, loose, unconcerned and powerful, it said. Stood up to the gender norms associated with what it meant to be a woman. It was a challenge to the idea of clothes being divided between gender. The translation is quite accessible even to a person who is not conversant with the whole language. However, there’s a lot more in the meaning behind those three words. It is political and it’s personal, it’s layered.
The Woman Who Chose This Name
Rei Kawakubo never attended any fashion school. A world view attained through an education in fine arts and aesthetics at Keio University, Tokyo, is a tell-tale sign of her world view. Graduating, she went to work in advertising and began designing clothes for a variety of reasons. But she did not find any dress that she liked so she made her own one. Since 1969 she has been designing for Comme des Garcons. She wasn’t looking to set up an expensive fashion house or to make an attack on the existing fashion houses of Paris. She was attempting to express something yet to be expressed, something that was not Art and Cloth but Human Raw Feeling. Kawakubo has always been extremely secretive. She is interviewed very seldom.
She does not state in a short number of words what she collects. Her work is self contained. Selecting a title for the world, she demonstrates her attitude towards the world and what she feels fashion should do. She didn’t like to make fashion a thing of gender and what society expects a woman to wear. She wanted the material to have a “real feel”.
The Song That Started It All
This is the piece of this story that most people would never read, and this is the most beautiful thing in this story. Comme des Garcons was not a figment of their imagination, but the result of careful consideration. It was directly inspired from a French song ” Tous les garcons et les filles” from 1962 by Francoise Hardy.
Everything about a young girl who sees all of the couples pass by on a street, is totally alone, longs for love and connection, but just quietly. I am emotional, I am sad, I am uniquely human like the great Songs. The word “comme des garcons” is also in the song, as the merging of boys and girls is natural. There was a strong message in that song that Kawakubo was able to hear. The emotion behind the words is important, too. A feeling of wistfulness combined with individualism. She captured this emotion, this inner feeling and made it her trademark which would later be seen on the runways of Paris and on the backs of some of the most important people in the world.
Why a Japanese Designer Chose a French Name Comme des Garcons
Fashion was in vogue in France during the 1960s and 1970s. Paris was the centre of all things beautiful, all things idealized, all things that the world referred to or just said were beautiful. The first three names that spring to mind are Chanel, Dior and Saint Laurent. These were the names which were the sign of good taste in the international arena. It was a respectful gesture to that strong world, as well as a subtle yet assertive challenge, for a young Japanese girl attempting to create something altogether new and different. Kawakubo was stating that she was part of that discussion, too.
She wasn’t there outside asking in. She was on the ball. And She was, however, doing it her own way, and a name that was bucking the decades-long rule and tradition that French high fashion has been following. It was a maneuver which many people did not grasp completely in those days. Looking back on it now, it’s genius in three words.
The Name Was Never Just a Name
After comprehension of its true purpose and message it will be viewed in a different light. Additionally, you can explore the relationship of this philosophy to the Comme des Garcons Play story, and discover how it can be more than a decoration or a brand. Comme des Garcons was always a concept and a line of clothing.
It was about the idea that the institution of clothes shouldn’t expose a person’s gender, social position or status in the world. It was about being uncomfortable, it was about the hard challenge, it was about the sometimes hard to look at fashion and it was the fact that I was still very, very beautiful. Kawakubo has commented that she considers the idea first and the garments second. The name remains unchanged. The idea was first. The remainder was easy.
How the Name Shaped the Whole Brand
Consumers don’t know, but a brand name creates all of the rest. It’s the background for all subsequent collections, campaigns, store design and collaboration, in an unobtrusive manner. Like any brand that started with a name that didn’t fit into neat, comfortable boxes and definitions, Comme des Garcons has never been constrained in its ability to do the same. They have no typical retail store appearance. It’s sort of like a clothing sale art show. They are not involved in selling or gathering seasonally or in fashion, nor are they interested in meeting the demands of the mass market. They resist it, ignore it and even mess it up.
Whether it’s Supreme, Nike or Chrome Hearts, their partnerships are invariably unexpected, always not what you’d expect. If you want to discover the inspiration behind this brand in all aspects of its life, then go back to the name. It was more than just a concept of freedom from the day it was constructed. And that freedom has never been taken away.
What This Name Means for Buyers Today
Today, when a person buys a Comme des Garcons purchase, he is not buying a hooded coat or a pair of sneakers or a cardigan. They’re investing in a name that’s more than just a name, it’s actually a reality that has been more than 50 years. They’re linking themselves to a song that was sad in French, a Japanese woman that didn’t find clothes she liked and three words that made a quiet revolution in the “what is fashion allowed to be?” question. However, if you are considering making serious choices on this brand, you’ll be better served knowing a little of what makes the Comme des Garcons official shop so unique so you feel connected with what you are wearing and can make better choices. It is said that that original energy is present in the name to this day. Like the boys. Free. Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Completely itself.
It Was Always Bigger Than Fashion
Comme des Garcons is NOT a business name, a clothing brand name, or a name designed for a competition. It was chosen for a purpose that had to be done. About gender. About freedom. What fashion would be if it would only do what it means rather than what it pleases. In her later years, Rei Kawakubo heard a French song that resonated with a deep and profound feeling; she took up the next 50 years to construct a whole world around the feeling. From there, she chose the name and it became the groundwork for all things.
It was the first determination which allowed all the other determinations. However, decades later the name is all that remains. It continues to stop people. It still gets people’s attention. Even it has an unexplainable sense. But, wait a second, that’s what it was supposed to be doing in the first place.
