Kawakubo, Rei (1943– )

Japanese fashion designer. In 1973 she established her label Comme des Garçons, and her first women's collection was shown in Tokyo in 1975. She scorned conventional fashion, trying to produce timeless clothes such as womenswear in plain colours and graded tones in simple shapes which defy Western ideas of showing off the body, taking on a life of their own.

She has been highly influential, especially during the 1980s, like other Japanese designers Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. In the early 1980s she became known for baggy ‘post-Hiroshima’-look sweaters. The flagship Comme des Garçons store opened in Tokyo in 1989.