COMME DES GARÇONS SPRING-SUMMER 2025

Rei Kawakubo's power is to draw us seamlessly into her world, with a natural flair that underlies all her extravagance. Whether she's presenting a dress in the shape of a brocade teepee; another resembling a wedding cake with two trays of woven meringue; or silhouettes weighted down with overstuffed covers, Rei Kawakubo defies the laws of the why not. How did these dresses travel from Tokyo to Paris; how did the studio manage to stuff these bags with bubbled taffeta; to paint these shoes worthy of The Wizard of Oz or Rosemary’s Baby? 

On the reclaimed wood podium, a silhouette reminiscent of an air mattress coated in glossy varnish, moves forward in XL sneakers with a slow stride, as if the soles were made of iron. The sculpted allegories follow one another, evoking the balancing acts of his admirers, Viktor and Rolf, between reversals and the perfection of the absurd. Stacks of padded bags as twenty-first century baskets, aristocrats on the road to exodus, or princesses left to their own devices on the island of temptations and hallucinations, with mounted petticoats whose white swirls evoke a super-sized rum baba. A couture happening in the midst of the centenary of Surrealism? Rei Kawakubo keeps on staging the disorder of the world with the strength of her craft, and her absolute sense of technique gives her that slightly punk aura, which attracts a real public of enthusiasts while making the others dream. Witness the crowds massed during this Fashion Week on rue des Francs Bourgeois, at the new Dover Street Market Paris, a meeting place for signatures, and exciting performances that make the capital pulsate.