Rei Kawakubo

All Clothes by Comme des Garcons spring/summer 2010 collection; Underwear by Spanx
Photography: Lina Scheynius
Styling: Cathy Edwards
Hair: Lyndell Mansfield at CLM using Bumble and Bumble
Make-up: Kelly Cornwell at Premier using Clarins
Models: Ranya and Karolin at Supreme
Styling assistants: Paul Wagenblast, Hollie Lacayo
Hair assistant: Roxane Attard

"The main pillar of my activity is making clothes, but this can never be the perfect and only vehicle of expression. I am always thinking of the total idea, and the context of everything. Fashion alone is so far from being the whole story. It seems that with fashion, as with art, things are getting easier in one sense, but at the same time it is getting harder to be stimulated about things or excite people. Without that impetus of creation, progress is not possible. All kinds of ways of expression are spreading out all over the place, information is overflowing, and it’s harder and harder to be excited about anything. In order to be stimulated or moved in the future, we probably have to go into space and look at our world from there.

What do I think is an unyielding spirit? It would be wonderful if everyone had it in equal measure. But it’s impossible. This defiant mentality can also be called the fight against absurdity and injustice and the power (authority) that thrives around it (that is rampant). One cannot fight the battle without freedom. I think the best way to fight that battle, which equals the unyielding spirit, is in the realm of creation. That’s exactly why freedom and the spirit of defiance is the source (fountainhead) of my energy."

Rei Kawakubo
http://www.anothermag.com/exclusives/rei-kawakubo