How 10 Photographers Captured Rei Kawakubo’s Genius for the New Met Catalog

Nicholas Alan Cope, from the exhibition catalog for "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between"Adult Punk, Fall 1997; Adult Delinquent, Spring 2010Photo: Vogue.com

The Met Gala, held the first Monday in May, is as epic as it is ephemeral. The blockbuster exhibition it celebrates can be enjoyed for several months; the catalog, forever. A treat for fashion- and bibliophiles alike, these beautifully produced books are keepsakes, each one researched and designed with significant care.

The catalog accompanying next month's exhibition—a celebration of designer Rei Kawakubo's work at Comme des Garçons—differs from those that have come before it in two ways. As compiled by curator Andrew Bolton and designed by Fabien Baron, the clothes are shown on models rather than mannequins. Due to conservation issues, items from museum collections can't often be displayed like this, but Kawakubo gave permission for her archival pieces to be documented this way. The book also features new photography, with more than 205 color images mixed among sketches by hairstylist and longtime CDG collaborator Julien d'Ys.

Bolton and Baron tapped a diverse cadre of 10 creatives for the job: Nicholas Alan Cope, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Katerina Jebb, Kazumi Kurigami, Ari Marcopoulos, Craig McDean, Brigitte March Niedermair, Collier Schorr, and Paolo Roversi. Each photographer brings, of course, their own unique perspective to Kawakubo's oeuvre. Roversi, for one, has collaborated with her for years; others, like Marcopoulos, don't work primarily in fashion. The results are striking and shed new light on the famously opaque house. Notably reticent, Kawakubo prefers her clothes to speak for themselves—as they have since 1981, when she first brought her unorthodox vision to the Paris shows and rocked the establishment. It gives her few statements the rarity of jewels; many of these, too, have been collected and set with care throughout the book, while an interview between Bolton and Kawakubo further illuminates her seemingly mysterious motives and processes.

Here, an exclusive first look at nine images, commemorating "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between."

Source: How 10 Photographers Captured Rei Kawakubo's Genius for the New Met Catalog