Rei Kawakubo Refusing Fashion

Rei Kawakubo (born 1942) established Comme des Garçons in Tokyo in 1973 and quickly consolidated her stature as one of the three major Japanese designers alongside Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. Kawakubo's conceptions stem from her background in fine arts and literature rather than from any formal design training. Her fabrication methods, and her collaborations with artists such as the late, great Merce Cunningham, are explored in this survey of her work. ReFusing Fashion presents over 40 key garments, costumes from Kawakubo's Cunningham collaboration, photographs, runway footage and ephemera.