Rei Kawakubo on AI, the colour black and her advice for young designers

This story is taken from the autumn 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from September 10. Pre-order a copy of the magazine here.

There is a story about Rei Kawakubo that has been repeated so many times it has become fashion lore. Three decades on, it remains an example not only of Kawakubo’s genius, but of her commitment to letting her work speak for itself. The journalist at the centre of the story is a colleague, and my counterpart at AnOther Magazine, Susannah Frankel.

“I’d just started as fashion editor of the Guardian and a couple of days later I was taken to the Comme showroom on Place Vendôme,” she says, when I ask her to confirm the story. “Because I was new, I was introduced to Rei Kawakubo who was there – and still often is there. Although her presence is quiet, modest – shy – I felt nervous and intimidated, dumb and badly dressed in comparison. So, I lived up to expectations and asked her a dumb question: ‘What were you thinking about when you were designing this collection?’” They were standing at a white table, the ones where they do the buying appointments at Comme. There was a pile of A4 paper in the middle of it. “Rei picked up a pencil, drew a circle on a piece of paper, and walked away. I thought she was going off to do something and then coming back. Everybody did. But that was it. She was gone. I thought it was so funny. To this day, it’s the best answer to a question I’ve ever had. It said nothing – and everything. It was perfect.”

I myself have two memories of Rei Kawakubo, and one is second-hand. The first is from 2011, during my time as an unpromising young model. It was June and I was in Paris for men’s fashion week. I’d been summoned to a casting for Comme des Garçons Homme Plus and remember rolling up to Place Vendôme and being directed to a long, narrow room filled with similarly long, narrow boys. Unlike other castings, this one was deathly quiet. Models stood in silence, clutching their portfolios and shuffling awkwardly as they queued up to show their walks. At the side of the room stood a diminutive figure, dressed all in black, watching everyone closely with an impassive look on her face. The severity of her stare was matched only by the bluntness of her bob. She radiated power and authority. In case you’re wondering, I was optioned for the show and then dropped a few hours before it–such is the nature of the job – but the experience left a lasting impression on me.

Five years later, almost to the month, I was interviewing Judy Blame – the stylist, accessories designer, icon of punk and one of my personal heroes – in his flat on Mildmay Park in north London. Surrounded by objects of his own extraordinary creation, he recalled the time he was commissioned to make jewellery for Comme des Garçons’ S/S05 collection.

“I’d always been a fan of Rei, and I remember seeing her early shows in Paris when she was shocking them silly. So when I got the call I was like, ‘Oh my god, at last.’ We arranged to meet her at her hotel,” he said. “I was about three minutes late, sweating, dragging my bag, and there she was, sitting there like a commander, surrounded by her staff. She just pointed at this piece I’d brought, which was made from gold chains and fluorescent pink toy soldiers and said, ‘I want that.’” Blame rang Adrian Joffe, Kawakubo’s partner in business and life, a few days later to clarify her instructions, and he said she didn’t care what he made, as long as it was pink and gold. “That was my only instruction: ‘pink and gold’. So it was nerve-racking, but brilliant. And then the collection was all Pink Panther, these mad suits that looked like they’d been made out of furniture fabrics... I was stuck doing gold chains and fluorescent soldiers for about six months.”

I think of Blame’s words, “shocking them silly”, every time I see a Comme show. Each season, she explodes our ideas about clothes, producing garments that come closer to great art than any other designer. The A/W26 collection, Ultimately Black, was no exception. There was something funereal about the show, which comprised 20 black looks, punctuated by six in bright, bubblegum pink. It was like Kawakubo’s take on Victorian mourning dress, full of corsets, crinolines and bustles, lace, tulle, velvet and silk. Fabric was manipulated like paint in the hands of an old master, ballooning and cocooning the body, coiled around it with ruches and ruffles, pleated and patched, balled up into giant knots and blown out to extreme, abstracted proportions.

Comme shows are always a balm at fashion week. There are no celebrities, no influencers, no famous models. Runway cameos, surprise performances and superfluous set design are also nowhere to be found. There’s just a straight catwalk in a sparsely decorated (and often stiflingly hot) room – and clothes. Amazing clothes that upend your conceptions of fashion – that move you and even, in the case of a colleague at this particular show, bring you to tears.

Here, in a rare interview, Kawakubo discusses the collection, shares her thoughts on AI and offers some advice for aspiring designers.

This collection is titled Ultimately Black and is composed predominantly of black looks. What does black mean to you in this collection? What is it a response to?

Rei Kawakubo: This collection was born from the realisation that once again, when all is said and done, black is an essential colour for my artistic expression, because black is the colour of resistance, of justice and of independence.

Among the predominantly black looks were six vivid pink ones. People often associate pink with femininity. Is that true for you?

Rei Kawakubo: The pink in this collection has no particular meaning; it exists solely to enhance or reinforce the black, like a spice.

“Black is the colour of resistance, of justice and of independence” – Rei Kawakubo

Your latest show made one of my colleagues cry – do you consciously try and evoke emotion in people who experience your work?

Rei Kawakubo: There is no specific purpose – it is not always “for something”. I seek something new, but what the result brings about is something I do not know.

How do you think about the relationship between your clothes and the body? What do you hope your clothes allow the body to do – or become?

Rei Kawakubo: The relationship between clothing and the body is not the theme.

We are living in very dark times. How do you see fashion’s role in responding to that darkness – or to the hopelessness it can inspire?

Rei Kawakubo: I believe the role of fashion is that, by expressing oneself through what one wears, one’s spirits are lifted – in other words, it has a positive effect.

There is a great deal of discussion about the role of AI in creativity at the moment. What is your perspective on this?

Rei Kawakubo: If there are 100 people, all 100 will be different. In the case of AI, all 100 would more than likely give almost the same answer.

What advice would you give to young designers who are just starting out?

Rei Kawakubo: To the younger generation: just keep going, keep going.

This story is taken from the autumn 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from September 10. Pre-order a copy of the magazine here.

Hair and make-up Julien d’Ys at L’Atelier NYC, models Alaina Rae at Supreme, George Anderson at Viva, Libby Bennett at Premium Models, set design Jean-Hugues De Chatillon, photographic assistants Clara Belleville, Marine Grandpierre, Mattia Mirandola, styling assistants Anne Elizabeth Voortmeijer, Marie- Kristina Talo, hair and make-up assistant Ilker Akyol, digital operator Matteo Miani at D-Touch Ldn, production Studio Demi, production assistants Théo Sillas, Andrés Sontag, Brandon Marras, post-production RetouchGradingBureau, casting Calvin Wilson at Establishment.