On stereotypes:  I love stereotypes, sweeping generalizations and everything that is un-PC. Stereotypes are fun to goof around with and, in a way, you sort of diffuse them if you throw them around.

On gay food versus straight food:  People have the silly notion that there are four food groups. There is really only gay food and straight food. I’m advocating a balance of the two. An oversized beef burrito is basically a phallic symbol, it’s obviously so straight. The gayest food has got to be macaroons, in all pastels and shades. If you lived on them you would explode into a nuclear cloud of gayness. Sushi is also a gay food. You’re taking a big sloppy fish and making it into little bon bons. That seems really gay to me.

On bringing the word “naff” to America:  The word naff is a very useful term, you use it to describe something that is just really tragic and dreary and doesn’t have any style, a lack of panache. There is no American word for that.

On female inspiration:  Suzanne Bartsch was a woman I found to be really inspirational and funny.

On his message to the masses:  I want everyone to be less self-critical and feel less self-conscious, that’s my mission in life.

On his favorite designers:  Alexander Wang – he’s incredible, has such energy, he’s really groovy. Azzedine Alaia – it’s fun to go into his boutique and turn the dresses inside out, the construction and level of design is amazing. Paul Poiret – who did all the exotic stuff at the early turn of the 20th century. Also Christian Lacroix, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto.

On International Gays: The gays in London tend to be very mod, they wear their Fred Perry’s.  In Japan its crazy, the level of flamboyance, style, and experimentation is incredible. In Paris people are so dressed up its great. There are lots of cocktail hats, lots of transgendered things but not in a drag way, more like a tweed cape and Birkin bag, but in a man way.

On Straight Man Fashion:  If you’re in America and you put a lot of attention on how you look and dress, in US context you’re going to be perceived as gay. If you do that elsewhere it may not. I have a chapter on men’s style and what I’m advocating is that gay men and straight men should dress the same but they have to pick from three looks: the perverse prep (Thom Browne, Band of Outsiders, comes from workwear) or the heritage henry (Carhartt, Levis, heritage brands) or the douchebag look (Jersey Shore, Ed Hardy, Abercrombie) it works. It’s all about juxtapositions in the world of fashion, it’s a jigsaw puzzle. It doesn’t work individually, it works as a whole.

On Fads:  There’s absolutely nothing in the fashion scene I would like to see go. I love all of it. I don’t have the ability to say “oh yes she looks terrible” because it’s all subjective — as long as she’s happy and having a good time I don’t have that need to kick her to the curb.  Probably because I’ve been so involved in fashion history I see it as a landscape. It is not about you, it is about fitting into the social landscape.

On Having Your Own Look:
You’ve got to have your own look, it’s all about self expression. Even if that is objectively kind of demented. Marc Jacobs once said fashion isn’t about trends any more, but it is about having your own look. Self expression is the key to everything. Even if you have a mullet at least you look like yourself. Good. Go buy two mullets.

- Notorious recluse, Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons offers a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal. [WSJ]

- V Magazine offers a special preview of its 72-page Elizabeth Taylor tribute, styled by Carine Roitfeld and shot by Mario Testino. In it, Stephanie Seymour channels Liz and at least a few of her eight marriages. [The Cut]

- A gift from the retail gods? The Barney’s Warehouse Sale has been extended through Wednesday, September 7th. [Racked]

- Legitimate organization (?) Cosmetic Executive Women (U.K.) will honor old-school diva Joan Collins for being “a true cosmetic executive woman” and “a wonderful advocate for the beauty industry.” [WWD]

- According to recent statistics released by Match.com, Manhattanites are 3% more interested in dating someone from Brooklyn than someone from Manhattan. [Refinery29]

RAD HOURANI

IMPORT ORIGINS: He designs in Paris, by way of Canada, but grew up  in Jordan of Jordanian/Syrian descent.

DEISGN SPECS: Unisex transformability is his calling card. With angular cuts and zippers that zip infinitely, his aesthetic rides the edge of mascu-femme.

FACT: While his runway looks may run into the thousands, he considers Rad Hourani his laboratory. RAD by Rad Hourani applies those concepts conceived in the lab to materials we mortals can (?) afford.

What’s going on in Beijing, you ask? The grand opening of a store stocked with more than a range of Comme des Garçons lines. The brand new I.T Beijing Market features pieces from Maison Martin Margiela, Rick Owens, Hussein Chalayan, Dior Homme, Ann Demeulemeester and other avant-garde visionaries.

What you really want to know – what are so many new designers doing that disappoints this fashion oracle? They are too soft on themselves, they design things that already exist! It is a sin against fashion. She firmly believes that the point of fashion is to design what has never been done. And that is why we revere her.

To that end, she is finding it harder to create new collections. She’ll never make the same thing twice and humbly admits that the “breadth of possibility is getting smaller.” The thought of selling her company has occurred to her and she hasn’t written it off as an impossibility, but she wonders who would want it? The company is so essentially her. Her current staff that she is training will hopefully be up to the Comme des Garçons challenge: to create something resolutely new. Though more hopefully, that won’t be necessary any time soon.

Link Love: WWD

Find more photos like this on ENVY. THE FASHION NETWORK

LINK LOVE: GQ

With influences such as Maison Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake,  Andreia Chaves appreciates design that provokes the common perceptions that people hold.

LINK LOVE: Notcouture via Yatzer

LINK LOVE: WWD

Find more photos like this on CULT

Thanks Style!

Rei Kawakubo is creating a new collection of handbags under the Beatles/Comme des Garçons label in collaboration with Apple Corps Ltd., the company that manages the Beatles’ musical catalogue.

LINK

1) ALEXANDER WANG

2) PHILLIP LIM

3) YOHJI YAMAMOTO

4) REI KAWAKUBO

5) THAKOON

6) DEREK LAM

7) ANNA SUI

DOO-RI CHUNG

9) JASON WU

10) VIVIENNE TAM

VMan is dedicated to pushing mens fashion forward and the Summer 09 edition is no different. It gives us a taste of what’s to come for fall and focuses on the designers committed to bringing menswear into the forefront – Rick Owens, Riccardo Tisci, Rei Kawakubo and Raf Simons, and more.

Terry Tsiolis creates an edgy portfolio celebrating fashion on the fringe and models Joseph Culp, Kyle Sanders, Julian Hennig, Andrey Ivanov, Devin Childers, Tomek Szczukiecki, Danny Schwarz, William Eustace, Mikus Lasmanis, Keith Browning & Ludwig P are all enlisted to add attitude.

LINKAGE: Models

Rei Kawakubo’s Fall 2009 Comme des Garçons collection had me reminded of kindergarten story time with “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”…except this collection is missing it’s happy ending. Honestly, where’s the butterfly? The whole collection was rather unflattering, sending creepy skin colored cocoons and cropped trenches, layered over pelts of and pelts of  baggy fabric, down the runway  While screen prints cheapened many of the garments, checkered blankets made several coats and jackets look more like DIY projects than runway worthy fashion. To be very blunt, none of these pieces are even ready-to-wear…unless you’re the homeless guy who sleeps in a garbage can in Washington Square Park. But credit is owed where it is deserved and I must say, the toe-printed oxfords are adorable. At least Comme des Garçons Fall 2009 wasn’t a complete let down…

GALLERY: RUNWAY RUNDOWN: Comme des Garçons Fall 2009

LINKAGE: Style 

Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo told BlackBook:

“The collection is constructed around Comme des Garçons’ style. Rather than aiming to make clothes that no one has ever seen before, it is very much Comme des Garçons to its roots. My priority has always been creativity, which was not the least bit compromised with this collection. That was the last thing H&M wanted us to do. Otherwise they wouldn’t have asked us.”

Okay, so Comme des Garcons is very expensive, and H&M is not, and many are pissed that CdG for H&M will run upwards of $350. BUT, this is the only change to snag a piece for under a thousand bucks, AND it will be made with no compromise to quality. So would you rather pay less for sweatshop brand, or a little more for a the creativity and ‘uncompromised’ efforts of Rei Kawakubo herself?

Thanks NY Mag

Marc Jacobs talks about the much anticipated Louis Vuitton collaboration with Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garsons. 

“I’ve kind of warned everybody up there that I think they’ve gotten a little too into this idea which, I mean, is great, I’m glad that everybody gets behind it, but what they don’t realize is that I do it at a pace that maintains the brand’s integrity and seems really right, and I think that sometimes everybody loves a good idea so much that they kind of go too far and it kind of kills it.”

Legendary designer Rei Kawakubo is collaborating high and low. Beside the one-off line she’s doing for H&M this November, the Comme des Garçons designer approached Louis Vuitton and will design six handbags that will be sold exclusively in a temporary Louis Vuitton shop at the Comme des Garçons store in Tokyo’s Aoyama district this fall.

Kawakubo said the collection would include two original “party bags” she designed, plus reeditions of two 30-year-old handbags and customized versions of two current monogram styles. The temporary store is slated to open Sept. 4 with an interior she described as half luxury, half raw.

Meanwhile, Kawakubo disclosed that she’s designed a red, pie-shaped shop concept that will house her Comme des Garçons for H&M collection in its entirety in 20 select locations, with smaller versions in a great number of doors come early November. She’s also tapped photographer Peter Lindbergh for the campaign that will feature Missy Rayder, among others.

Marc is also excited about the collab, stating “It is impossible to overstate Rei Kawakubo’s influence on modern fashion, I find it wonderful to think that 30 years ago, this immense talent, someone who has inspired so many others, was inspired by Louis Vuitton.”

Source: WWD