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If her soundtrack of late-70s and 80s rock bands was anything to go by, it would appear Rei Kawakubo’s take on the Edwardian currents flowing through the SS13 menswear shows in Paris was decidedly rocky. It was an accomplished COMME des GARÇONS collection, which was practically dedicated to the long coats of said epoch which appeared throughout in about eight or so segments featuring a variety of prints and colours on trousers and shirts. The camouflage, snow leopard, tartan, gold, and black-and-white striped uniforms came out sans coats for the finale, which served as a notice of how punkish the collection actually was as soon as the coats were removed. Sure, the just thirteen models who walked the show had been made up with black mono-brows, burning bright orange hair, and spikey headbands, but the strictness of the coats transformed each look into something that went beyond rock or punk. This wasn’t necessarily an Edwardian transformation all the time. The adoption of the knee and ankle-length coats of the Victorian and Edwardian eras by 80s rockers such as Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper couldn’t help but enter into the picture and suggest a brilliant pre-goth aesthetic in the collection, which merged all the genres quite excellently.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
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