A Case of The Emperor's New Clothes

News just in Comme des Garçon has done the amazing, the unthinkable, the unimaginable it has completely changed an institution. Yes thanks to Comme des Garçon ‘Outrageous just got Boring’. Frankly, I think the Comme des Garçon Fall/ Winter 08/09 collection was over-indulgent and a master class in bad taste. Although, according to designer Rei Kawakubo this dip into bad taste was intentional as she wanted to highlight that, "there's value in bad taste, too.”

There is no doubt that CdG has become a spectacle with many people intrigued by the crazy creations. However, there’s only so much a person can take before lace (dripping from almost every ensemble), cutout lips, polka dot, net and love-hearts become quite tedious. I was amazed however by the fact that Rei Kawakubo has managed to skirt under the radar and become exempt from the scrutiny many designers receive by simply giving weightless explanations for her collections.

This season the intention was to show “Comme des Garcons bad taste”. So working with that line of thought, if a designer decides to do a collection not including clothing as a social commentary on how materialistic society is today that is okay? The answer should be no, but it seems giving reasoning for being absurd is a simple way to get approval and respect in fashion.

Fashion Journalists in their masses give this approval and whilst, I respect that for business purposes Fashion Magazines must not offend Designers, there is a point when pure profit must be put aside and your reputation must come first. If for one second people were to look at this collection with objective eyes, instead of under the haze of fashion mumbo-jumbo telling you it’s an attempt to ‘confound the tyranny of "good" taste’ someone would see that this collection is simply bad.

Perhaps I am the only one that sees this and this really is a case of the Emperors New Clothes or there are more of us out there who can see through the fanciful descriptions and fluffy explanations. All I can say is that I hope the next collection for Comme des Garçon will give me nothing to complain about but something great to write about.