Comme des Garçons A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s

Mood board: According to the post-structuralist theory of French philosopher and socialist Jean Baudrillard, today, nothing can be original, it is merely a repetition or imitation of something else. It’s a concept that has particular resonance at fashion week, where guests are exposed to both self-referential and copy cat silhouettes. ‘Is it not impossible to make something completely and utterly new, since we are all living in this world,’ Rei Kawakubo summarised in the concise show notes to her ‘NeoFuture’ collection. The bulbous, padded, multilayered or 2D shapes in her collection – appeared to reference her own collections, like the voluminous shapes of the seminal S/S 1997 lumps and bumps show, and more recently the bold red forms in S/S 2015’s ‘Roses and Blood’, the veiled bridal forms of S/S 2012 and the flat 2D designs of A/W 2012.

Team work: Kawakubo invited her guests to look at each silhouette on the runway individually (despite her commentary on the impossible nature of individuality). Models slowly walked on stage in usual Comme des Garçons style to 20 individual music pieces, flitting between classical to pounding techno, selected by Brooklyn-based sound artist Calx Vive, who also creates the sound for Dover Street Market’s New York outlet.

Finishing touches: In regular style the brand collaborated with Nike, and models strode purposely into the catwalk wearing white Air Force 1s. §