Even before the abrupt lights out and soundtrack cut at Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons Homme Plus show, the designer left us pondering an aesthetic war between necessity and frivolity - her silhouettes toying with the balance of scruffy schoolboys and their dandy prom night counterparts. An opening passage of trim, tailored suiting was missing all the vital pockets (oval cut-outs hit at the heart and hip-level), while elsewhere jackets featured frayed, zippered windows. Beneath those, what started as clean, white shirting became more opulent look by look, as Kawakubo injected ruffles and frills galore, extending below blazers, or poking out as prom king yokes. Glitter zebra and polka dot jacquards fronted the season's exuberant finale, as the designer finished with layered, lapel-shaped scarves (or were they vests?) in a pointed question of formality and excess.
Photography: Anna Stokland/Jason Lloyd-Evans
