Comme des Garçons Homme Plus A/W 2017

A front on view of two different models on the same catwalk, left pink hair and right blue hair

(Image credit: TBC)

Mood board: In true Comme style, the show was staged in the grand, opulent ballroom at the Westin hotel – yet guests were made to enter the space from a narrow staff entrance at the back of the building. Season after season Kawakubo rarely divulges a singular theme, making it difficult to reason with the prickly white rubber embellishments that were on the back of suiting, studded with crystals that were drawn by the American artist Scott Hove. The clothes were about boyhood and the joy of youth - the mood felt playful in both its use of texture and colour as silicone cake moulds were attached onto the front of jackets. Across most of the tailoring, sections had been fused with a different pattern. Shirts had been cut away at the body, exposing bare flesh.

Best in show: Aside from the classic black wool suiting and crushed fabrics, there were shiny and fuzzy jackets, a glitter plaid and a short-pile, spongy tech fabric. Together with the roomier fluid trousers and the brightly coloured abstracted camo by artist Candida Alvarez, the clothes felt altogether a little easier than previous seasons.

Finishing touches: Standout were the ruffled waistcoats worn underneath matching jackets. But really it was Hove’s dinosaur and car shaped moulds in yellow, cyan, pink and black, decorating the front of dinner jackets and the top of Nike Air Force 1s that stole the show. Form and function!

Comme Des Garçons Homme Plus A/W 2017

A separate view of the same catwalk but different models front on view

A separate view of the same catwalk but different models front on view, both with green hair

A separate view of the same catwalk but different models front on view both

A separate view of the same catwalk but different models front on view, both with yellow hair

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.