I'm no mind reader, but I would say Rei Kawakubo has been getting a real kick out of her men's collections lately, so playfully have they tripped up the sober verities of masculine dress. (Layer leopard spot on a twill suit? Why not?!)
Moving on from Fall's odd couplings, there was an irresistible candy-flipping happiness in the latest Comme des Garçons collection.
Its theme was the open-ended "Random Collage," or, as Rei's husband Adrian Joffe explained it, "an indiscriminate gathering."
Anarchy will develop its own internal logic as a matter of course, which is why a white peacoat appeared on the catwalk with slabs of fisherman's sweater attached to its front. (Both nautical references, geddit?)
But it wasn't really logic we sought in a glen plaid jacket randomly collaged with college stripes, or another jacket whose tidy tailoring was interrupted by a tie erratically stitched down beside some plaid and a little Aran knit.
Tom TravisElsewhere, a grab bag of ethnic elements—dhoti pants in a fire-bird print, prayer-shawl tassels—mixed with the exotica of western culture: a college jacket, a letter sweater, a punk bum-flap.
Meanwhile, the soundtrack juggled an entirely antique Human League track with a little Gang of Four.
It wasn't Now, but it wasn't exactly Then, either. In fact, the random revisionism almost felt like environmental recycling, the way one T-shirt was stitched on top of another, for instance, or pockets from one piece of clothing were haphazardly stitched to another. We know life is random. How much more of a jump can it be to accept that fashion's future is equally, joyously so?
Tom Travis (Major)
Tom Travis
Tom Travis
