the aftershock - comme des garcons spring/summer 2011

It's been more than a while that the fashion week has ended. I hold a strong respect for all those bloggers out there who can seem to review every single show on time. It's amazing. I hardly have time just to look at each show everyday, let alone process it or even blog about it. But I managed to watch/look at pictures of most of the shows once they were available. As usual, there were numerous amazing ones, some moderate ones and few shows that just makes you wonder how the hell did those dresses make their way onto the runway. But the show that took the longest for me to actually wrap my mind around was Comme des Garcons. Most of the other shows were pretty straight forward seeing that minimalism is totally back right now. 90% of the shows were straightforward clothes, with a bit of details and designs and style lines differences here and there, but in the big picture, the designs and the clothes were very simple and in a way, naive. The  other show that took me a while to understand was Maison Martin Margiela, but even with his show, it was pretty straightforward, flat clothes made to fit the human body, yet appearing flat. 

But this Comme des Garcons reached a new level of brain-circling. My brain was in circles after looking at this show and the detailed pictures. Some people will just say this is an ugly collection. Sure, it is not aesthetically "beautiful" by the means of the literal meaning of the world's perception of "beautiful" clothes.  It's a very confusing and complicated collection. If you just catch a glimpse of this collection, it is, well, very Comme des Garcons in its spirit and style, but there is this air of freshness in the clothes. I love how Kawakubo san can always bring something new to the table that will make people like me sit in front of the computer and just stare at her clothes for a good long five minutes and wonder in my head, "How did she come up with that?"

Some might perceive it as that this collection was just a bunch of random items of garments thrown and sewn together randomly. But to me, it seems like each seam, each pleat and each drape was carefully calculated over and over until the perfect state is reached. Simply, this collection was mind-blowing in a literal way. I actually felt dizzy after I look at this collection. It changes the silhouette, shape and look of what is expected of "clothes" in a subtle way that is almost un-noticable unless you stare closely and actually think about it. It is not one of those "in-your-face" weird collection. It is very subtlely playing with your mind. 

This collection leaves me wanting so much more. This collection makes me want to hold the clothes up close, and examine them and look at how they're made. Because it's like a mystery!

This collection is a collection that subtely plays with the conceptual and perception of porportion and the purpose that clothes are "supposed" to serve, yet giving off a strong odor of mystery and darkness and humor.