Rei Kawakubo - Icon

The set of four Fashion Illustrations were each created to a specific brief.

This one is Icon: An icon of the fashion industry, could be a designer, model, or other main player...

I chose Rei Kawakubo. The founder of long standing fashion house Comme des Garçons (and Dover Street Market). Rei Kawakubo brought a whole new colour range within the spectrum of black. I have adored her mould breaking a lot of times oversized and androgynous designs since I first discovered them as a teenager. At the time and to this day her creations were almost anti-fashion in very stark contrast to a lot of the fitted garments of the time.

The illustration is kept very simple in reference to her design principals and in nuanced shades of black and white, featuring organic shapes hinting at her love of creating body modifications through dress, adding the rarely used accent of scarlet used in her collections. The designer almost merges and blends into the background in reference to her almost media shy persona.