Life doesn't frighten me. Michelle Elie wears Comme des Garçons runs until 1 November 2020 and charts the stories behind the pieces of Elie’s bewildering collection: from the discovery to the acquisition, to the experience of wearing the pieces and the reactions that wearing them provokes. The exhibition showcases some of the most extravagant creations by Kawakubo including the pastel padded dress from the famous Lumps and Bumps collection, an ensemble of three rose-red garments from the beautifully unnerving Spring/Summer 2015 collection, and the enchanting Blue Witch piece from Spring 2016.
“For something to be beautiful, it doesn’t have to be pretty,” the legendary Japanese designer once said. Elie’s passion for Comme des Garçons lies in Kawakubo’s relentless query into the notions of beauty, proposing the endless manifestations and complexities of the idea that’s commonly proposed as a singular image. “The whole notion of beauty is so restricted and this fixation on keeping up to the certain image of beauty is too one-dimensional,” Elie says. “What about the rest of us who do not fit in that mould? I never want to fit in!”