We Will Never Be Royals
Review of Comme des Garçons Spring 2027 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
Rei Kawakubo has never been interested in making things easy for the audience who attend her shows. With little explanation beyond the line “When royal life and everyday life become one,” Spring 2027 asked those watching to find their own meaning in her abstract concepts. Makeshift crowns, sumptuous jacquards and exaggerated sculptural forms merged with everyday denim and cotton canvas, creating a stark contrast between the ordinary citizen and the increasingly self-crowned royalty.
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
The designs produced by the mind of Rei Kawakubo are always left to the viewer to interpret. With little given by way of explanation (i.e. no extensively detailed press release here) the affectionately titled ‘Comme Day’ of the Paris fashion week calendar is always standing room only. Because in a week where there have been many desitable collections, guests attend a Comme des Garçons (or Junya Watanabe or Noir Kei Ninomiya) show to really feel something. To wake up their frontal lobe and rise to the challenge of how to explain the artistry they so often witness in layman’s terms.
The first bulbous look to manoeuvre onto the runway was affixed with a makeshift crown tied with raw-edged cloth rags. The first thing that came to mind was the 2013 international hit from Lorde titled “Royals.” A song – and statement – that couldn’t be more relevant to today. At the time it was a critique on the way the luxury lifestyles presented in music videos had become ubiquitous and represented an inflated sense of self, with artists seeing themselves as modern-day royalty. Nearly a decade on and it is rather social media that has crowned everyone from the average Joe to the uber-wealthy as royalty.
This is where the two themes collide, as the one sentence that was received post-show from the designer read “When royal life and everyday life become one.” Perhaps suggesting that the lives of royalty (whether self-made or sovereign) and the ordinary citizen is getting closer every day. As each member of the designers ‘royal family’ of models carried their sculptural silhouettes, that are a Comme des Garçons signature, with a regal air. Everyday denim and cotton canvas were mixed back with jacquards that may have once graced a royal palace. The over-blown shapes felt like an inditement of the importance countries, such as the UK and Spain, place on their royal families. What was most significant was the metaphor held within the clothes as they took to the runway. Bursting forth and escaping from every opening were plumes and ruffles of red hair and tulle, that could be representative of the suffering of the ordinary citizen, while the rich continue to expand their wealth to the point of bursting.
A theme reminiscent of the French Revolution in 1793, when Marie Antoinette was beheaded, Kawakubo’s spring 2027 message could be one of a foreshadowing of the fate of the rich and royal. That a time is coming when the bubble will burst – the first look was itself two balls that were bursting at the seams – and the ordinary citizen will create their own make-shift crowns and rule the realm.
THE WRAP UP
Whether Kawakubo was predicting the inevitable revolution yet to come or simply holding a mirror up to a world where the lines between royalty, celebrity and the everyday have become increasingly blurred is deliberately left unresolved. But there was something in those swollen silhouettes that appeared ready to burst, as hair, tulle and ruffles fought their way through every available opening.
If the crown has become so easily accessible to everyone, then Spring 2027 could be Kawakubo’s reminder that the privilege and excess it represents will have to give eventually.
