Of the whole major characters in the Comme des Garçons clan, Tao Kurihara is the name we hear the least. Her stamp, Tao, shuttered in 2011—she stopped showing in Paris, and as an alternate used to be field to work on the Comme des Garçons Tricot line. Then, in 2021, with nothing bigger than a voice, Tricot used to be rebranded into Tao, and the clothier’s eponymous stamp used to be revived. For the previous few seasons now, Tao has been holding off-time desk presentations in Tokyo and presenting her bric-a-brac finery to a diminutive non-public target audience in a windowless room on the seventh ground of CDG’s Aoyama headquarters. How deliciously mysterious. And the way in which very Comme.
This most up-to-date time out—held early on a Wednesday morning—unfolded as a parade of white, broken up with an inky splash of murky in the middle. The non-coloration palette served to level to off Kurihara’s mastery for texture, which is invariably a feast for the eyes. Ivory cottons and cream lace were folded treasure paper, ruched daintily at the shoulders and waist, or scrunched into crumpled corsages that swirled around the body. Broderie anglaise dotted girlish tops, alongside with white argyle, floral lace, and quilting that rippled all over skirts and trapeze coats, whereas pom-poms bobbed up and down on the toes of sneakers.
The cutesy and overtly female framework that Tao operates within—or “the coquette graceful” because it has now been categorized on-line—has been one of potentially the most considerable trends in womenswear not too long previously. However Tao’s in finding on it feels totally different; she wields her bows and whistles in the kind of model that the enact is of safety, in desire to decoration.
sIn contrast with Rei Kawakubo, who this season known as her series Madden, Tao named hers Happiness. Very totally different emotions, but Tao clearly takes after the CDG matriarch with her knack for lofty theory attire that, to the gorgeous other folks, may perhaps be perfectly saleable. Quickly after the level to ended, Tao herself regarded on the ground beneath, dragging alongside a half of-dressed mannequin to ready it for the showroom. Stopping in rapid, she said that the message in the again of the series used to be straightforward. “We all need some more happiness.” After which, again to work.
