Kawakubo Quotes & Sayings

My approach is simple. It is nothing other than what I am thinking at the time I make each piece of clothing, whether I think it is strong and beautiful. The result is something that other people decide. — Rei Kawakubo

If you have total freedom to design, you won't get anything interesting. So I give myself restraints in order to kind of push myself through, to create something new. It's the torture that I give myself, the pain and the struggle that I go through. So it's self-given, but that's the only way, I think, to make a strong, good new creation. — Rei Kawakubo

I make clothes for a woman who is not swayed by what her husband thinks. — Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction the meaning of it is born. Without the wearing of it, it has no meaning, unlike a piece of art. It is fashion because people want to buy it now, because they want to wear it now, today. Fashion is only the right now. — Rei Kawakubo

The first thing we do is sit around a table and discuss what we could pick up from daily life, from space. That's how it starts, completely abstract. There's no kind of, "Oh, let's do Peru," or "Let's do pleats," you know? — Rei Kawakubo

I'd make my whole collection with just one square of fabric. I wouldn't do anything else; everything had to be made from one square. This is just one example. — Rei Kawakubo

I identified very much with punk, not only in the fashion sector, but in every other sector. The very nature of doing something new and free meant something that was against authority. — Rei Kawakubo

I've always said that growing up in postwar Japan, I never felt any connection to my work through those experiences. The work I do really comes from inside myself. For me, being born in Japan was an accident. — Rei Kawakubo

For me, creation can only come out of a certain kind of unhappiness. They say in Japan, this thing like the hungry spirit - the hungry mind - is what gets you going forward. — Rei Kawakubo

I work in three shades of black. — Rei Kawakubo

The more people that are afraid when they see new creation, the happier I am. — Rei Kawakubo

I don't think of myself as anyone special, and I would not know how to define myself. — Rei Kawakubo

I can't become naked for everybody. It's never going to be possible for the person to write the whole story completely, so I find bits of myself, bits of what I think in some articles. And I don't give lip service to journalists. I never make them feel comfortable. I say, "It's your job to make the story." — Rei Kawakubo

The idea was not to make a huge business, because the bigger you get, the more restraints I thought I might get. Number one was to do what I set out to do: make new and interesting things within the size of the business that is possible to do without restraints. The second goal was to do the business in order to achieve the first goal. That's what many people don't understand. — Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is something that you can attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction, the meaning of it is born. — Rei Kawakubo

There are no limits - I endeavor to make clothes that didn't exist before. — Rei Kawakubo

I am kind of like the guide, the leader of this discussion. It could be from me, it could be from other people, it could be a mixture. It's a real sort of guild. I lead it and direct it and inspire it. — Rei Kawakubo

In the '70s, if anything, it was a more interesting time in fashion. It was a time when things were changing, especially in London. — Rei Kawakubo

What you wear can largely govern your feelings and your emotions, and how you look influences the way people regard you. So fashion plays an important role on both the practical level and the aesthetic level of activity. — Rei Kawakubo

Comme des Garcons is a gift to oneself, not something to appeal or to attract the opposite sex — Rei Kawakubo

For something to be beautiful it doesn't have to be pretty. — Rei Kawakubo

Creation takes things forward. Without anything new there is no progress. Creation equals new. — Rei Kawakubo

Beauty is whatever anyone thinks is beautiful. — Rei Kawakubo

The very, very first thing that I wanted was to make a living - be independent and have a job. It might have come later, that kind of reaction to the boringness of fashion. — Rei Kawakubo

The freedom I give myself for the business is in deciding to take part in the Paris collections, but also having other retail strategies that are unlike anybody else's. Not necessarily going into malls, doing the business my own way - having different brands to cover different concepts, to be able to have the cash flow to carry on. — Rei Kawakubo

Every time before a collection, I say, "I don't want it to come out. I want to cancel it. It's not good. I haven't achieved anything." — Rei Kawakubo

If I do something I think is new, it will be misunderstood, but if people like it, I will be disappointed because I haven't pushed them enough. The more people hate it, maybe the newer it is. Because the fundamental human problem is that people are afraid of change. The place I am always looking for-because in order to keep the business I need to make a little compromise between my values and customers' values-is the place where I make something that could almost-but not quite-be understood by everyone. — Rei Kawakubo

I haven't yet made clothes that I have been totally satisfied with, and maybe I never will. — Rei Kawakubo

My energy comes from freedom and a rebellious spirit. — Rei Kawakubo

Celebrity doesn't really affect the work. What affects the work is the expectations from the outside. This is what no one understands. — Rei Kawakubo

What I want to express is a feeling-various emotions that I am experiencing at the time-whether it is anger or hope or anything else, and from different angles. I construct a collection and it takes concrete form. That's probably what appears conceptual to people because it never starts out with any specific historical or geographical reference. My point of departure is always abstract and multileveled. — Rei Kawakubo

In the sense that anarchy equals freedom, yes. Anarchy means freedom, but it also means chaos. — Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is not art. The aims of fashion and art are different and there is no need to compare them. — Rei Kawakubo

In terms of creation, I have never thought of suiting any system or abiding by any rules. In this respect I have remained free. The necessity has grown, as we have gotten bigger, to think about commercial aspects of the business more and more, because of the responsibility we have toward our staff and our factories. — Rei Kawakubo

I am a clothes maker, and that's all I am. I only want to talk about the making of the clothes. I don't feel the need to go out there and explain that. — Rei Kawakubo

I always just wanted to have enough to carry on. I never had ambitions to take over the world or be a global enterprise. But I wanted to have a strong business in order to do the main objective. — Rei Kawakubo

You can tell if it's a good collection if people are afraid of it. In ten years, everyone will love it. — Rei Kawakubo

There's always a pattern in order to make a thing, but the starting point must be something I've never seen before. It's not two-dimensional, but it's like a sample. I work with patterns like a sculptor. I try to get [the team] not to work on a body, [but] to work on a free space, on a table. The work is basically on flat surfaces. — Rei Kawakubo

Most of the things I read from journalists are, you know, a little bit simplified and easy. — Rei Kawakubo

Because the fundamental human problem is that people are afraid of change. — Rei Kawakubo

The theme of the collection this time is MONSTER. It's not about the typical Monster you find in sci-fi and video games. The expression of the Monsters I have made has a much deeper meaning. The craziness of humanity, the fear we all have, the feeling of going beyond common sense, the absence of ordinariness, expressed by something extremely big, by something that could be ugly or beautiful. In other words, I wanted to question the established standards of beauty. — Rei Kawakubo

Years ago, it was easier to make new things than it is now. The weight of experience weighs heavily, and the expectations; everybody wants to see something they haven't seen before. Now, with social media, with too much information, with the speed of information - all that is making it harder and harder to realize the objective. — Rei Kawakubo

It would have more meaning for me to hear what critics have to say if their values and their ways of living were deeper and more serious. — Rei Kawakubo

I started with wanting to think about witches, about strong women who have special powers - who are often misunderstood. Then I found some beautiful blue fabric, so I made Blue Witches. My creative process is always like that. Organic, text, theme, subtext, each day evolving and trying to make strong, beautiful clothes. It's that simple. — Rei Kawakubo

It was also never wanting to be part of any group or movement or anything that was the done thing. I hated organization. When you have a group, you have a leader who is going to put down the rest of the group. — Rei Kawakubo

What's good about many people liking the work is that when I want to collaborate or am interested in the synergy of artists working together, nobody ever says no to me when I ask to work with them. — Rei Kawakubo

Not only in the creative world but also in the sports world. The most successful achievers in sports are people that are really driven and have that spirit of hunger. — Rei Kawakubo

Feeling free inside oneself is being free. — Rei Kawakubo

I'd rather [the collection] have no title. Journalists like titles. That's why I give them to you. — Rei Kawakubo

For me, I haven't succeeded in any way whatsoever. — Rei Kawakubo

I don't feel too excited about fashion today People just want cheap fast clothes and are happy to look like everyone else — Rei Kawakubo

The same spirit runs through everything I do. — Rei Kawakubo