Runway Rituals: Comme des Garçons and the Power of Fashion Myth

In the fast-paced world of fashion, where trends flicker and fade with the seasons, certain designers carve out a legacy that transcends the materiality of clothes. Among these is Rei Kawakubo, the enigmatic genius behind Comme des Garçons—a brand that has come to redefine the very concept of fashion. Comme des Garçons is not merely a label; Comme Des Garcons it is a ritualistic experience, a mythology woven from fabric, form, and rebellion. In this blog, we journey through the symbolic rituals of the runway and explore how Comme des Garçons has turned fashion into an enduring myth.

The Birth of an Anti-Fashion Myth

Comme des Garçons was founded in 1969 by Rei Kawakubo in Tokyo, a time and place marked by cultural rebellion and artistic upheaval. From its inception, the label rejected the norms of conventional beauty. Kawakubo’s vision was not about dressing women to please the male gaze or fit societal standards; it was about reshaping the human body and the narratives that clothes could tell. When Comme des Garçons debuted in Paris in 1981, the reaction was polarized. The dark, torn, and asymmetric garments led critics to label the collection as “Hiroshima chic,” exposing not only fashion’s bias toward Western aesthetics but also its discomfort with ambiguity and difference.

Yet that very discomfort was the seed of a new mythos. Kawakubo wasn't merely designing clothes; she was designing a space for reimagining identity. Like all powerful myths, Comme des Garçons offered an alternative worldview—one in which imperfection was beauty, silence was voice, and absence was presence.

Ritualizing the Runway

The runway, in the hands of Comme des Garçons, is transformed from a site of display to a ceremonial stage. Unlike the glossy, commercial spectacles of mainstream fashion weeks, Kawakubo’s shows unfold like modern theater. Each collection is built around a conceptual theme—a meditation on topics as broad as death, restraint, madness, or love. The garments become actors, and the models, with their often-expressionless faces and awkward movements, move through the space like ritual participants. There is a deliberate strangeness in the rhythm and pacing, evoking discomfort, awe, or contemplation.

This ritualization transforms the fashion show into an experience that lingers beyond the season. A Comme des Garçons collection is remembered not for a specific dress or trend but for the world it conjured. In one show, models appeared with towering wigs and oversized silhouettes that made them look like walking sculptures. In another, dresses were deconstructed to such a degree that they resembled abstract canvases. These are not clothes for daily wear—they are totems of ideas, mythic in their symbolism.

Fashion as Language and Rebellion

Much like myths communicate values, fears, and hopes of a culture, so too does Comme des Garçons speak a complex language through its garments. There is a persistent tension in Kawakubo’s work: between beauty and grotesque, structure and chaos, body and garment. Her clothes often obscure rather than reveal, challenging the viewer to confront their own assumptions about femininity, desirability, and normalcy.

In doing so, Comme des Garçons becomes a fashion house that not only critiques the fashion industry but reimagines its purpose. Kawakubo has famously said she creates “not to make women more beautiful, not to make them sexier, not to make them look slimmer.” Instead, she offers garments that ask questions rather than give answers. This ambiguity is what gives her work a mythic resonance—it resists definition, constantly reinventing itself in the face of interpretation.

The Cult of Kawakubo

Every myth needs a central figure—a demi-god, a prophet, a mysterious sage. Rei Kawakubo fits this role perfectly. Known for her elusiveness, rarely giving interviews or appearing in the spotlight, she has cultivated an aura of mystique that only deepens the legend of Comme des Garçons. Her public silence becomes part of the ritual: her absence allows for projection, speculation, and interpretation.

This absence, however, is not emptiness—it is deliberate space. Kawakubo encourages her audience to become part of the creative process. In interpreting her work, in responding emotionally or intellectually to it, the viewer becomes a participant in the myth-making. The community of Comme des Garçons followers—artists, intellectuals, designers, and fashion devotees—share in a collective ritual that extends far beyond the runway.

The Myth in the Market

Even the retail experience of Comme des Garçons participates in its mythology. Step into Dover Street Market—Kawakubo’s multi-brand concept store—and one enters a curated temple of fashion. It is less a store than an installation, designed to disorient and provoke. The clothes are displayed in non-traditional ways: hanging from sculptures, behind curtains, or in dim lighting. Shopping here is not transactional; it is experiential, immersive, theatrical.

Kawakubo’s use of fragmentation, collage, and juxtaposition—stylistic choices that define her runway shows—also appear in how she curates these spaces. The myth continues in every corner, drawing the consumer into an alternate reality where fashion becomes a site of exploration, not mere consumption.

Comme des Garçons in the Cultural Imagination

Comme des Garçons has left an indelible imprint on fashion history, but its influence reaches further—into art, music, philosophy, and gender politics. Its radical aesthetics have inspired artists like Cindy Sherman and Björk, and philosophers like Judith Butler have drawn from similar ideas around performativity and identity. Kawakubo’s work opened a new space where fashion could function not just as self-expression but as cultural critique.

In many ways, the power of Comme des Garçons lies in its refusal to be understood in conventional terms. Like the most potent myths, it invites multiple interpretations and reveals more the longer you engage with it. A dress may appear grotesque, only to become beautiful upon deeper reflection. A collection may seem bleak, only to uncover layers of vulnerability and grace.

Conclusion: The Eternal Return

Comme des Garçons does not ask to be liked. It does not promise comfort or clarity. Instead, it offers transformation. Every season, it returns not to repeat, but to reinvent. This eternal return—of themes, of shapes, of the unfamiliar—is what sustains its myth.  Comme Des Garcons Long Sleeve Like all great rituals, the performance is never quite the same, but the invitation to witness remains open.

In a world where fashion often feels fleeting, Comme des Garçons offers a rare and sacred space where fashion becomes myth, the runway becomes ritual, and the act of dressing becomes a journey into the unknown. Rei Kawakubo reminds us that in the folds of fabric and the silence of silhouettes, there still lies the power to disrupt, to question, and to believe in the unseen.