Met Gala: Meet Rei Kawakubo

“Rei Kawakubo/ Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between”

Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

May1st, 2017 New York City.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the 2017 Spring Costume Institute Exhibit “Art of the In-Between” which launches May 1st with Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams as the Knights co-chairs; at the same time, the Gala celebrates the iconic designer Rei Kawakubo.

Katy Perry, Rihanna, Kendall Jenner, Pharrell Williams and many others feted the famed designer, who is the second living designer to be given a solo show at the Met since Saint-Laurent back in 1983.

Why Rei Kawakubo?

Kawakubo is a Japanese designer who has influenced a whole generation, especially artists and architects, through her visionary practices. She is all about creativity and innovation. Forcing audiences to rethink notions of beauty, body, and variability, Kawakubo breaks down barriers by creating hybrid identities. Curator Andrew Bolton, in charge of the iconic institute said, “Ray Kawakubo is one of the most important and influential designers of the past 40 years, inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation and hybridity. She has defined the aesthetics of our time.”

Met Gala 2017 Interview with Chief Curator Andrew Bolton

Q: Hasn’t this been exhilarating for you to work with Rei?

A: It’s been amazing; it’s been a complete dream come true. Actually, she is a genius.

Q: How would you define avant-garde?

A: I think clothes that provoke confrontation.

Q: Sometimes avant-garde clothing is not necessarily easy to wear. Are they?

A: Yes. They are not always functional. I think Rei used to send diagrams, see the shops to try and figure out how things work. It takes a strong person to wear avant-garde clothes.