Comme des Garçons – The World’s Most Innovative Fashion Brand

Comme des Garçons – The World’s Most Innovative Fashion Brand

Hello and welcome to Japan Media Tour, I’m your  host Stephen T.M., and today we’re going to be   talking about Comme des Garcons -This iconic Japanese fashion   brand was founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969 -A lot of people might know Comme des Garcons for  

Its line PLAY, with the cute heart logo with eyes  on it, but the brand is so much more than that  -The concepts that inspire the designs are  as deep as the themes in any novel or film,   and they’re absolutely worth studying  for anyone with a thirst for knowledge 

-If you’ve listened to the podcast before then you  know what I want to do is to slowly piece together   the puzzle that is Japanese culture and society  through a study of the art and media of Japan  -This would be impossible without  examining Japanese fashion, in particular,  

Such an important company as Comme des Garcons -So stay tuned and see how Rei Kawakubo’s designs   explore topics such as masculinity and femininity,  the old vs. the new, and whether or not we should   consider fashion to be art -First thing’s first though,  

I always thought it was strange that  this Japanese company had a French name  -Well, Comme des Garcons is French for  “like the boys”, and Kawakubo got the   name of the brand from Francoise Hardy’s  1962 song “Tous les Garcons et les Filles”  -There’s a couplet toward the end  of the track that starts with: 

“Comme les garçons et les filles de mon âge” -So the song actually says “comme les garcons” and   not ”comme des garcons”, but you get the idea -By the way, I hope I didn’t offend anyone with   my poor French, or with my poor Japanese  for that matter, but it’s fun to try 

-Another interesting thing about the brand name  is that it isn’t just the name of the designer  -When you think about it, most high fashion brands  are just named after the designer – for example,   Yohji Yamamoto, Yves St. Laurent, and Issey Miyake -One explanation why Comme des Garcons defies  

This convention is that Kawakubo likes  to stay in the shadows a little bit,   and not put herself at the centre of things -Who is this Rei Kawakubo though?  -Well, she was born in 1942 in  Tokyo, of course, during World War 2 

-And young Rei was a child of divorce – in  1940s Japan, which was very rare at that time  -Apparently her mother wanted to  pursue a career, whereas her father   wanted her to be a more traditional housewife -This surely planted the seed for Rei Kawakubo’s  

Later exploration of gender roles in her creations -What does our clothing say about society’s   expectations of the different sexes? -Just think about that as we continue on  -Kawakubo didn’t actually study  fashion, but rather studied fine   arts and literature Keio University -Which is actually where her dad worked 

-And it’s also where Yohji Yamamoto  went to school – for those unfamiliar,   Yohji is another well-known fashion designer,  and one of Kawakubo’s contemporaries who figures   into her life story in quite a major way – the  two actually dated for years back in the day 

-After graduating, Kawakubo worked in advertising  before getting into the fashion industry  -As I mentioned, she started  Comme des Garcons in 1969  -The company started with apparel, and is  still by far most well known for its clothing,   but also makes jewellery and fragrances,  just like many other fashion brands do 

-The women’s lines were successful  throughout the 70s, and they came   out with their first men’s line in 1978 -Throughout the 80s, Comme des Garcons was mostly   monochromatic – focusing on form more than colour -This is in contrast to a lot of other fashion  

Trends in Japan at the time, and all  around the world, for that matter  -So let’s look at some of the fashion trends  from the 1980s “bubble economy” Japan:  -First is Hamatora – which is a portmanteau  of the words Yokohama and Traditional  -Yokohama is known for being quite  a sophisticated city, and so it  

Follows naturally that Hamatora was meant for  so-called “elegant and refined young ladies”  -Some signature items of this  look were: cardigans, loafers,   high socks, and long wrapped skirts -This style was popularized by JJ   women’s Magazine, and it was a  preppy kind of look for women 

-So let’s look at the male counterpart  of Hamatora, Japanese Preppy,   which popped up around 1981 -It was borne out of the   “Ivy Look” of 1950s America -You know the one – preppy East Coast   college guys in Ralph Lauren and stuff like that -Japanese Preppy was popularized by magazines like  

Popeye and Men’s Club – I actually like Popeye  magazine – they’ve got some good fashion stuff,   and even some travel and restaurant guides -And you’ve got to understand – fashion magazines   like these were huge in the 80s, especially before  social media like Instagram and TikTok came around 

-These magazines are still popular, but  they had a lot more influence back then  -Japanese Preppy style also provides more evidence  of Japan’s obsession with all things American,   especially at that time – add it  to the list, alongside jazz music,   baseball, hamburgers, and pro wrestling -Some items that definite Japanese Preppy  

Style are: blazers, cardigans,  hats, and button-down shirts  -Next let’s look at the Olive Girls of 1980s Japan -Now “what the heck is an Olive Girl?”, you ask  -Well it’s a style that comes  from the fashion magazine “Olive” 

-It’s a kind of cute and innocent, girlish look –  maybe an early kawaii style, with lots of frills   and bows, big collars, and plaid -Olive Girls often incorporated   lots of pink and red into their outfits -Brands like Atsuki Oonishi, Issey Sport – IS  

Tsumori Chisato Design, and Pink  House were some of their favourites  -Another popular style at the time was  “Bodikon”, or Body Conscious which got   big in the late 80s, around 1987 -This was all about long hair,   tight dresses, and bright colours -It all kicked off after the 1985 Equal  

Employment Opportunity Law was passed, which  was a big step toward gender equity in Japan  -This style was essentially for club  girls, wearing mini dress, high heels,   and maybe jackets with big 80s style shoulder pads -All right and I know I’ve gone through a lot of  

Styles here, but I’ve got just one more before  I get back to Comme des Garcons – Shibukaji,   another portmanteau – Japan loves portmanteaus  – Shibukaji means “Shibuya Casual”,   and it rose to prominence around 1988 -While the early 80s saw the rise of the  

Domestic Character Brand, or DC trend where  people dressed head to toe in a single brand,   Shibukaji rejected this and promoted the idea  of styling various brands at the same time  -It’s a pretty timeless style that  is still ubiquitous to this day 

-Picture some Levis jeans, a Hanes t  shirt, and some Red Wing engineer boots  -But what does all this have  to do with Comme des Garcons?  -Nothing! And that’s the point – Rei Kawakubo  totally rejected the popular styles of the day  

And came through with something entirely different -It was the 1981 Paris Collection that would   prove to be a major turning  point in the history of fashion  -That year, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto  flooded the runway with all black garments,   and it was thus dubbed The Shock  of Black by fashion critics 

-The clothing were black, torn, and  featured unique silhouettes that were   not meant to be flattering to the body -Now it might be hard to understand just   how groundbreaking this was – as this type  of clothing has become pretty commonplace  

Today – but the world of high fashion  in the 1980s was dominated by lots of   shiny and colourful, tight-fitting clothes -What Kawakubo and Yamamoto did represented a   complete 180 from the fashion trends of their day -If you take a look at what other designers  

Brought to Paris in 1981, you can see  how these two Japanese designers just   existed on a different plane than the rest -By the way, apparently it was a total   coincidence that they both came out with all-black  collections that year – seems hard to believe,  

But apparently Rei just showed up in Paris  without even telling Yohji she would be there  -The Shock of Black was heavily criticized at  the time, but like so much of Kawakubo’s work,   it has come to be appreciated and  even revered as time has passed 

-She was attempting to send the message  that women’s clothing didn’t just exist   for the purpose of attracting male attention -Remember she created all of this in a very   male-dominated Japan in the early 1980s -It also coincided with a time when more   women were entering the workforce -And just picture what Japanese  

Salarymen wear to work – black suits -There was power in black clothing,   and Comme des Garcons was giving some of  that power to the women of the late Showa Era  -The Shock of Black, like several of the other  Comme des Garcons collections, was seeking to  

Fuse the masculine with the feminine -So the collection had its detractors,   but it also had its fans, who were dubbed the  Karasu-zoku, which means “group of crows”,   referencing the black clothing they wore -The look was completed with distressed material,  

Long, flowing tops, bold makeup, and boyish  hairstyles – critics said they looked like beggars  -Karasu-zoku might have been the most  Japanese of the 1980s fashion trends,   taking little influence from American  style, and creating something all its own.  -Comme des Garcons was already popular in  Japan, but after the Shock of Black their  

Stores started to pop up all over the place – in  the US, France, England, and many other countries  -Comme des Garcons is sometimes described  as anti-fashion, going against the norms   of the fashion world – The Shock of  Black being a perfect example of this,  

And there will be many more examples to come -In 1982 came the Destroy collection  -It was sort of the next logical  step from the 1981 Paris collection  -It featured clothing full  of holes and imperfections,   meant to look imperfect and unfinished -Another fine example of wabi-sabi – one  

Of our favourite concepts here on Japan Media  Tour – the extremely oversimplified definition   being to find beauty in the imperfect -Kawakubo was one of the founders of the   deconstruction movement in fashion, along with  others like Margiela, Yohji, and Karl Lagerfeld 

-It’s the type of stuff that lay people  might look at and think is ridiculous,   not unlike the people who will look at a Picasso  painting and say “my 6-year-old brother could have   painted that” or something along those lines -And hey, some of it is kind of funny just  

Because it’s so strange, but that  doesn’t make it any less genius  -Change is strange -The artists who try something new   and different are the ones that make an impact -There are lots of people who can make a   photorealistic painting – and it takes talent,  but it does nothing to push art forward,  

And it’s far less interesting than taking risks -Kawakubo knows this better than just about anyone  -She has a real “out with the old,  in with the new” type of attitude  -The team at Comme des Garcons actually  attempt to burn everything to the  

Ground and start fresh each season – new  ideas, completely separate from the old  -Kawakubo said: ”Creation takes  things forward. Without anything new,   there is no progress. Creation equals new.” -She wouldn’t have been satisfied had she   just found something that worked and  stuck with it – she wanted to continue  

To drive forward into the future and make  newer and better and different creations  -This is what separates the  good from the truly great  -But of course, there is a line that can be drawn  between the different collections – though in  

The case of Comme des Garcons it is  not solid, but rather a dotted line  -Everything is fresh and new, but when you  make that much for that many decades there   are bound to be a few recurring themes -Some of the repeated aspects of  

Comme des Garcons pieces include frills and folds,  excessive amounts of fabric, lumps and bumps,   large holes, and unique silhouettes -But again, there is probably less   continuity between Comme des Garcons  collections than just about any other   company, so don’t dwell on the physical  similarities between pieces over the years 

-Much more important are the  ideas that inspire the collections  -Kawakubo often combines both sides of a binary  into one piece – male and female – East and West   – old and new – even clothing and not clothing -So in order to better understand how Comme des  

Garcons plays with those binaries, let’s  look at some of their other collections  -And I think we should start with their  most famous and most controversial,   the Spring 1997 collection entitled  Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body  -Some critics have referred to this  as the “lumps and bumps collection” 

-Critics absolutely hated this collection when  it first came out, and it was actually the   worst selling show in Comme des Garcons history -However, it is now considered one of the greatest   collections of all time – funny how that happens -Kawakubo was already very well-established at  

This point, both in Japan, and internationally –  and as usual, she was trying to shake things up  -This time even more so than usual –  giving radical new form to her pieces  -Even giving new form to the human body  itself – breaking down beauty standards  

And presenting something new and strange -The clothing completely recreated the   human body – through the aforementioned lumps  and bumps that were added to dresses that were   otherwise pretty standard -It kind of looks like   the models have tumours growing out of them -Last episode when I was talking about the horror  

Movie Cure I mentioned the Uncanny Valley – well  here it is rearing its disconcerting head again  -Kawakubo said she wanted to “design bodies  not clothes”, and I’d say she succeeded  -Looking at this collection is pretty  mindblowing, and even though it’s almost  

30 years old at this point, it gave me a new  understanding of what clothing can be – You   know those moments when a light goes on in  your brain? This collection did that to me  -And I’m so grateful for moments like that  – when something in my mind just clicks and  

I realize some new possibilities in this world -So like I said, the padding stuffed with goose   down that she added to the clothing  made the models look kind of scary  -She took something perfect, and made  it strange – again I see a parallel  

To the work of Picasso – he learned  to paint well in a classical sense,   and then the real challenge began – how could he  turn the work on its head and create something new  -I have one more reference to Picasso and  then I promise I’m done – the pieces in the  

Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body collection  have actually been compared to his later works,   in which he depicted his subjects from  multiple perspectives overlayed in one image  -In the Comme des Garcons collection some  of the pads are said to represent the body  

Parts of the models in different  positions at different points in time  -So fashion at this time was all about  showing off the sexiness of models’ bodies,   and Kawakubo turned this on its head – just as  she had done with The Shock of Black in the 80s 

-She told a story with each collection, so let’s  go to the beginning of the Dress Meets Body story  -When the first model walks out her breasts  are exposed through a sheer, see-through top,   forcing you to focus on the form of her  actual body, as opposed to the clothing 

-But when she turns around there are some  strange lumpy pads on her upper back,   instantly causing you to think about the pads  as some sort of deformation with the model,   as opposed to just a clothing design – the  way she primes us here is absolutely genius 

-And this continues throughout the show,  getting more intense and exaggerated  -Think about the title of the show: “Body Meets  Dress, Dress Meets Body” – the two are coming   together – it’s no longer just clothes on a body,  or a body in some clothes, but rather the body and  

The clothing have become fused into one being -Comme des Garcons created life in this show  -I see it as much as an art show as a fashion show  – I’m not sure if Kawakubo would agree though,   as I’ve heard a few different quotes  attributed to her on the subject. 

-One said that she believes that  fashion and art are two separate things,   with the wearer of clothing being an  active participant in the process,   whereas the observer of a painting is passive -But what about us mere observers of her fashion  

Show? We aren’t active in this process -Anyway, I believe fashion to be art,   just a distinct form of art, and Comme  des Garcons is the epitome of this  -No need to get bogged down in definitions though  – the point is, this show is incredible, even  

If critics at the time weren’t ready for it yet -Dress Meets Body brings up another conversation   though – that of plastic surgery  and body modification surgeries  -Changing our nature into  something altogether unnatural,   just as Kawakubo had done with her collection -This is more relevant than ever in the  

Digital age we live in now, between  photo editing and celebrity worship  -While most clothes accentuate bodies to make  them look more desirable, Body Meets Dress,   Dress Meets Body made bodies look worse  in a way – Destroying idealized beauty  -This collection recreated the  human form through wearable art 

-It’s kind of the same thing clothing  has done right from the very beginning  -It covers up our body and we take on a new form -From here we could probably get into the topic of   transhumanism, but I’ll save that for another time  – maybe when I talk about Evangelion or something 

-Next I want to quickly look at Comme des  Garcons’ Autumn/Winter 1995 collection, “Sweeter   Than Sweet”, just because it’s so different  than everything else the company has created  -Everything they do is different, but  Sweeter Than Sweet, as the name suggests,   is often said to be the most classically  feminine of Kawakubo’s collections,  

With lots of lace and flower patterns, soft and  sheer fabrics, and nothing too offensive really  -The models kind of look like  little Pikmin or something to me  -“Adult Punk” from 1997 is another collection  worth checking out – this is another example  

Of Kawakubo choosing to start with something  beautiful, and then rip our expectations to shreds  -The collection is full of really nice  beige and purple outfits, but they don’t   look quite finished, and Kawakubo then added  red bike shorts just to throw us off even more  -She purposely leaves her  pieces open to interpretation 

-She doesn’t want to define what it  means, she wants each person to look   at the pieces and take the time to decide  what it means to them – so go look at some   of the Comme des Garcons collections  and think about what they mean to you 

-The last collection I want to mention is  called Cubism, and it’s from Spring/Summer 2007  -The thing that makes this one interesting  is the recurring appearance of the red   dot representing the sun, which is  called the “hinomaru” in Japanese  -That being said, Rei Kawakubo has  always rejected the idea of being  

Labelled simply as another Japanese designer -It seems she doesn’t want to be categorized,   which is convenient for us as she is  almost impossible to stick labels onto  -The pieces in the Cubism collection are really  nice and relatively conventional compared to a  

Lot of other Comme des Garcons collections -They are a bit reminiscent of the brand   Sacai – Sacai, by the way was founded  by Chitose Abe, who used to work for   Comme des Garcons as a pattern cutter -Abe also worked under Rei Kawakubo’s  

Protege Junya Watanabe, who joined Comme des  Garcons in 1984, and was made head of their   Tricot line by 1987, eventually ending up  with his own eponymous fashion line in 1992  -Rei Kawakubo took Junya under  his wing which is very rare 

-The two of them seem to be kind of similar –  hiding from public view and working in the shadows  -Unlike Rei, Junya studied fashion at Bunka, which  is the most famous fashion school in Japan – Yohji   Yamamoto also attended Bunka, by the way,  as did a bunch of other famous designers. 

-I’ll talk about Junya more in a future episode,  but he’s a pretty interesting person as well  -Let’s get to know Rei Kawakubo a bit more though -She came into the fashion world as somewhat of   an outsider – not classically trained  in fashion, but rather in aesthetics 

-That’s part of why she’s an artist,  and more than just a fashion designer  -She doesn’t follow the classical  rules of fashion, which gives her   a bit of an advantage in breaking the rules -Her process is pretty unique – apparently at  

The beginning of each season she just writes  a word on a piece of paper and hands it to   her pattern cutters as a source of inspiration -For example, the word could be “freedom” or   something, and then all of the pattern cutters  will mock up some designs based on this,  

Bring it back to Kawakubo, and she will say  “yes” or “no”, and then I’m sure they repeat this   process a million times until they’ve got a hit -Rei also has a reputation of being a bit of   an angry, or perhaps dissatisfied person -Instead of saying one of her collections  

Went well, she might say that it was not  unsatisfactory or something like that  -And being the contrarian that she is, Kawakubo  says she is disappointed when her collections are   well-received by critics – it’s like that  means she didn’t push the envelope enough 

-What she really wanted though was a reaction,  whether it’s negative or positive – I guess the   worst thing for her would be if people were  just bored with what she brought to the table  -Kawakubo Rei was only the 2nd living designer  to have a show at the Metropolitan Museum of  

Art in New York City, after Yves  St. Laurent, who did it in 1983  -She actually attended the Met Gala too,  which came as a surprise to everyone,   including her husband Adrian Joffe -Her Met show was called Rei   Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons, Art of the  In-Between and opened on May 5, 2017 

-Binary themes continue to play a role in  the design and analysis of Comme des Garcons,   and this exhibition was actually designed  with 17 binary themes in mind, including:   fashion/antifashion, clothes/not clothes,  form/function, and abstraction/representation  -Kawakubo requested that there were no  labels or statements next to any of the  

Pieces because she didn’t want her work to  be interpreted in any strict or formal way  -Again, everything was left  in the eye of the beholder  -Comme des Garcons’ main line became less and less  about functionality as time went on, but other  

Lines, such as the incredibly popular Comme des  Garcons PLAY were designed so that anyone can wear   them, and in a variety of different situations -Play was launched in 2002, and it’s all   about accessible, normal clothing – t  shirts and hoodies and things like that 

-This is where Kawakubo’s  business acumen is on full display  -And she really is a great businesswoman,  and takes a lot of pride in that – in fact   she cares about that almost as much  as she does about being a designer 

-The eye-catching heart logo is beloved worldwide,  and this is probably what a lot of you think   of when you think of the Comme des Garcons brand -By the way, the heart with eyes logo was designed   by Polish graphic artist Filip Pagowski -If you only know PLAY, then I’m sure it  

Come as quite a shock when you search up  images from the runway collections – you’d   never think they were from the same brand -PLAY, as the name suggests, is colourful,   fun, and marketable, with a lower price point than  other lines under the Comme des Garcons umbrella 

-PLAY also opened the doors to collaborations  with brands like H&M and, perhaps most famously,   Converse, as well as a plethora of other brands -Nothing against PLAY, but I hope this episode has   helped to open some eyes to the fact that  Comme des Garcons is so much more than a  

Streetwear brand or something like that. It’s one  of the most powerful forces fashion has ever seen  -Even if you don’t care at all about fashion,  there are things you can learn from studying Comme   des Garcons that are just as important as anything  you’d get from a book or a painting or a symphony 

-I really want to get the point across  that Rei Kawakubo is one of the most   important artists of the past 100 years -I understand the runway models dressed   up in seemingly ridiculous outfits can be a bit  funny, but fashion designers need to take risks  

In order to break down barriers and carry  us into the future with their wearable art  -Kawakubo really wants to make  you think with her runway pieces  -She calls the pieces “objects for  the body” – not necessarily clothes,   but maybe more like sculptures -I said in a previous episode that  

The poet Matsuo Basho is as much a photographer  as he is a writer, well maybe Kawakubo is as   much a sculptor as a fashion designer -Clothing really is more than just what   you wear – it’s how you express yourself  – you wear it every day, and it becomes a  

Part of you – Body Meet Dress, Dress Meet Body -All right, that’s it for our main topic today,   but I’ve got a couple recommendations for you, one  of which is directly related to Comme des Garcons  -Before we get to that though,  stay tuned for today’s bonus topic

-So I thought that while we  were on the topic of fashion,   we could talk about one of the most famous  fashion districts in the world – Harajuku  -Any time I’m in Tokyo, I always make sure to  stop in Harajuku at some point, either to do some  

Shopping, or just to see the free fashion show  taking place in the street at all hours of the day  -By the way, Rei Kawakubo moved to Harajuku after  she graduated from university, so I’m sure it was   a source of inspiration for her -Harajuku is located in Shibuya,  

Southeast of Meiji Jingu shrine -While there you can visit the famous   Takeshita Street, which is basically just a sea of  people on a hill, eating crepes and cotton candy  -A mix of tourists, and people dressed like Kyary  Pamyu Pamyu – this is actually not my favourite  

Part of Harajuku, but it’s worth seeing -I mostly just like walking around the   backstreets, referred to as Ura-Harajuku  – it’s actually pretty calm in Harajuku   compared to a lot of other parts of Tokyo,  as long as you stay off the main streets 

-Harajuku was originally a small post town  on the Kamakura Kaido, which was a network   of roads going to and from Kamakura, during the  Kamakura Period, which lasted from 1185 to 1333  -Sorry for saying Kamakura so many times,  it’s a dirty habit – beautiful place though 

-Anyway, it was in the 1970s that  Harajuku became a fashion hub and   one of the centres of youth culture in Japan -Later on, in the 90s and 2000s, all the big   fast fashion brands moved into Harajuku, though  most of them are located on the main street,  

It did change the vibe of Harajuku  a bit, making it more commercial  -Don’t worry though, there are still tons  of cool little boutiques and vintage shops   scattered all over Ura-Harajuku -Now, I’m not going to saw that   it’s the birthplace of Kawaii Culture, as this  is actually the subject of much debate, with  

Forms of it going back at least 100 years, but  Harajuku is certainly mecca for all things kawaii  -The music, the street food, and of course  the fashion – somehow everything there is cute  -So if you’re into that type of  thing, I’m sure I don’t even need  

To tell you to go there and check it out -Anyway, I’m sure this isn’t the last   time we’ll talk Harajuku on the pod, but for  now, let’s turn to our weekly recommendations -For my first rec of the day I’m going back to  the Comme des Garcons well for another drink,  

And talking about Dover Street Market -Dover Street Market was founded by   Kawakubo and her husband, Adrian Joffe  in 2004, and it now has 7 locations – the   original was actually on Dover Street in  London, and the Tokyo location is in Ginza 

-The shop sells Comme des Garcons, as well  as other high end fashion such as Sacai,   Celine, and even streetwear or  skate brands like Vans and Palace  -The concept is based off of Kensington Market,  which was a three storey market in London that was  

A fashion and subculture hub from the 60s until  the year 2000 when it closed its doors for good  -The idea behind Dover Street Market is that  the store is also supposed to be an art gallery  -The clothes are displayed alongside  art installations, making the shopping  

Experience more than just a way to spend a few  too many hard earned dollars or yen or pounds  -They actually shut the store down a couple  times each year to put up new installations   and keep things fresh – this gives customers  a reason to continue to visit the store 

-I guess this has become pretty common,  but understand that this wasn’t as much   of a thing back in the mid-2000s as it is  now – funny how fast some things change  -Anyway, even if you aren’t planning on shopping,  I think it would be worth it to go and see some of  

The amazing Comme des Garcons pieces in person -So whenever I give a recommendation that’s   related so directly to the main topic of the day,  I always feel like I should give you another one,   so how about a bite to eat? -Just a bit South of Harajuku  

In Omotesando, you will find Ikina Sushi -They actually have a few locations, but this   is the one I’ve been to, and it was really good -It’s a little pricey at dinner, so go at lunch   to save a few bucks and eat the same sushi -They’ve got a bunch of different sets and  

Every piece I had was really good  – the atmosphere is pretty nice too  -By the way, it can be a little tricky to find  because it’s in the basement of a building  -You’ll find it though,  and you won’t regret going! 

-All right, so that’s everything for this week –  I really enjoyed doing the research for this one,   and I learned a lot about Japanese fashion.  I have a new view of Comme des Garcons now  -Stay tuned next week as we look at the  dark and mysterious world of Japanese yokai 

-It’s a pretty broad topic, but  it’s going to be a really fun one  -Yokai are like monsters or  demons in Japanese folklore,   and they appear in all sorts of different  movies, tv shows, and other media  -So until then, this is Stephen T.M., signing  off, and I’ll see you next time for, Yokai

Episode 10 is all about one of Japan’s most creative and important fashion brands: Comme des Garcons. The genius behind the brand is Rei Kawakubo, and her creations force us to think about deep philosophical questions. We also discuss Harajuku, Yohji Yamamoto, and Sushi.

Chapters:
0:00 Comme des Garcons
33:40 Harajuku
36:44 Dover Street Market

Dover Street Market Ginza:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CNQ3uKoCmHFZWe8p6

Ikina Sushi Dokoro Abe Aoyama:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KcDuKqZKD4hw7MCo7

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