Comme des Garçons Spring 2027

Rei Kawakubo brought the everyday into the realm of ceremony for Spring 2027, swapping some of her usual brocades, satin and lace for denim, cotton gabardine and pinstripes. The result was typically Comme des Garçons: familiar materials transformed into something strange, imposing and difficult to ignore.

The collection revolved around Kawakubo’s simple idea that “royal life and everyday life become one.” Tall fabric crowns gave even the most distorted silhouettes a ceremonial quality, while dresses ballooned into sculptural snowmen, violins and guitars. The proportions were deliberately unwieldy, with models navigating the narrow runway sideways as enormous skirts collided around them. Beneath the abstraction, however, were recognisable wardrobe staples: trenches, bombers, puffers and denim, all pushed far beyond their usual proportions.

The choice of humble fabrics made the contrast particularly effective. Railroad denim, pinstripes and cotton gabardine stripped away some of the prettiness traditionally associated with Kawakubo’s more ornate work, leaving the embellishment to emerge almost like hidden regalia. Gold braiding, passementerie and strands of hair appeared within the fissures and appendages of the garments, suggesting fragments of ceremonial dress buried inside everyday clothing.

There was a darker edge, too. One pinstriped look was split by swollen red-and-white protrusions that suggested something anatomical and unsettling, while the finale shifted the mood again. Crowns were replaced by foil domes resembling oversized Jiffy Pop lids, followed by enormous denim shorts, barrel-leg trousers and wide jeans with hems dragging along the floor. Kawakubo’s point was less about dressing like royalty than questioning why certain materials, shapes and embellishments are allowed to signify power in the first place. At Comme des Garçons, even a pair of jeans can become a coronation.