The Costume Institute Gala is the annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. This year, Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo of the brand Comme des Garçons is being honoured by the museum.
As is custom, guests have to dress up according to the theme and judging from Kawakubo’s designs, it’s not going to be an easy one to get right – the avant-garde designer is famous for clothes that are not easy to wear.
While it probably will be easy for people like Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna and even Pharrell Williams, who is the co-chair, it’s going to be interesting to see what gets served up on the biggest red carpet event of the fashion world. But first, here are a few details on the honouree, Kawakubo.
Designs from Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons over the years
WHO
: Rei Kawakubo founded Comme des Garçons in 1969 from the 1960s song All the Boys and Girls by French musician Francoise Hardy, and it reportedly detailed one woman’s never-ending doom of being surrounded by couples when she herself can never find love.
The brand made its European debut in 1981 at Paris Fashion Week, after it achieved widespread fame and success in Kawakubo’s native Japan.
WHAT
: The show is called Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between and showcases some of the best work done by the designer for the past four decades.
WHY:
It’s simple really – she is one of the few designers who constantly presents works of art on the runway. The thing about her designs is that they show the lengths you can go with fabric. She has never been afraid to go where other designers won’t go.
It’s for that reason that the Costume Institute saw her worthy of an exhibition. She is only the second living designer to have an exhibition at the Costume Institute dedicated to her. The first one was Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.
We are hoping to see these garments from Viktor and Rolf, Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier on the red carpet at the Met Gala.
CELEBS
: Comme des Garçons is confirmed to be dressing some of the attendees, with Lady Gaga and Rihanna’s stylists, spotted at a New York vintage store looking for CDG garments. Zendaya Coleman will be wearing Dolce & Gabbana, while Celine Dion will wear Versace. Williams, Katy Perry, Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady will be present as they are the co-chairs. We also expect all the Instamodels and iconic supermodels, musicians, actors and, of course, the Kardashian-West-Jenners in attendance at the $25 000 (R331 000) per person event. For the first time in about more than a decade, none of the Trumps will be present at the Met Gala.
I really wish that the celebrities attending would stick to the theme and go wild. There’s no middle ground with this theme – either you follow it or you don’t. If you don’t, you are then a waste of a guest and have taken up the space of someone who would really have had fun with the theme. At past Met Galas, a few people have actually stuck to the theme and I have chosen garments from designers and brands like Comme des Garçons, Viktor and Rolf, Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier (above).
Let’s hope one of these lands up on the red carpet Monday night.