The Unknown Comme De Garçon Interior Collection

Rei Kawakuba has been an industry icon for many decades now, known for her famous brand Comme De Garçon and creating the Dover Street market in London, but what most fashion lovers don’t know is of her 10 year interior design collection. Read along to see some of her most extravagant pieces made along with some of her other lesser known work she has done for the industry.

Born October 11th 1942 in Tokyo, Japan, Rei Kawakubo is a self taught designer with a profound and artistic fashion taste for avant-Garde clothing, making her one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. Originally starting out as a freelance designer and stylist, in 1969 the Comme De garçon brand was created. The philosophy behind the name and brand was originally that women should not have to be expected to dress in a sexual manner with no need for seduction or mens approval, thus designing clothes which cross fashion boundaries and aim for mobility and comfort. One of Kawakubo’s mantra’s is “I hate symmetry” which we see in her shapeless and irregular lengthed garments, with this being referred to as ‘antifashion’ in the industry. In 1998, Rei Kawakubo released the iconic perfume ‘Odeur 53 by Comme De Garçon’ This had a significant smell of fire, sand, the desert and tires which surprisingly (or maybe not) were a large best seller for the company. Moreover in 2004, The Dover Street Market was opened in London, gradually expanding into Tokyo, Beijing, New York, LA and Singapore. This market hosts a significant space for trendsetting brands and fashion houses to sell their most popular items. Overall, Rei Kawakubo had left an unforgettable mark in the fashion industry due to her beliefs and talent, creating many successful worldwide stores, the CDG brand is and always will be a flamboyant company which inspires many.

Not only does Rei have an amazing eye for fashion, her production of interior items is somewhat not talked about enough. The line was first introduced in 1983, lasting only a decade, finishing any creation in 1993 with no major distributions and only 1 physical store internationally. This line was created for the sole reason to be a pleasant experience for the customers as they have their high class shopping experience in the boutique. Items which were distributed were made out of simple materials like metal and wood, treating each piece as her own architectural project. So really the question is, how a brand so widely popular within the fashion industry had a furniture collection for so long with not many CDG fans being aware of? The aesthetic of the items were mainly brutalist and minimalist, with such uncomfortable materials being used the pieces were described as transitional objects, so not many were bought for actual use. Even though this was purely a experimental project with little to none success, it’s definitely an interesting collectors items to own and sure intrigues chair enthusiasts within different genres.

What makes this small and limited collection so original is the reason behind the significant aesthetic of the interior items. As mentioned before, Kawakubo focused on her fashion designing to be comfort over style, in which she prioritised which material was used, similarly with this collection. Though we can't say comfort was at all included in the thought process, the thought of how materials were used was by no doubt one. With materials of sanded wood and galvanised metal, the outstanding craftsmanship used to create each piece shows how conventional simple items can be to create an original look. Rei has stated these are secondary pieces, meaning their sole purpose was to set a certain ambience for viewers. With such a simple look with visually no emotion put into the items, this short lasting collection is definitely a controversial one among interior lovers, questioning if all furniture should always have an actual benefit for us physically.