The Japanese fashion designer has had a huge influence on what we wear ever since the late 1970s – and this week she became the first living designer to be given a solo show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum for 34 years
The morning after Monday’s gala launch of the Metropolitan Museum’s new fashion exhibition, the internet was awash with images of partygoers. Rihanna in latticed thigh-high boots, Madonna in cocktail camo print, Katie Perry veiled in blood red. However, it took a painstaking search to unearth just one photograph taken on the night of the woman for whom the party was held. Eventually, on the third slide of a New York Times party gallery – after Kendall Jenner, before Jourdan Dunn – I found a single image of Rei Kawakubo, the subject of the exhibition and guest of honour at the party. Kawakubo is wearing a white leather biker jacket zipped close over a white shirt buttoned to the throat, and stares unsmiling at the camera through black sunglasses.
To be the life and soul of a party is not Kawakubo’s style. Intense, deep and serious are her brand values. I had been promised that she would describe the experience of opening night to me, and true to her word, she sent me the following by email. “I WAS VERY CURIOUS TO SEE THE MET GALA AND HAD AN INTERESTING TIME. AND I WAS HAPPY TO SEE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE SPACE SPENDING THEIR TIME EXPLORING.” The fact that she is the first living designer to be honoured with a monographic show at the Met since the one staged for Yves Saint Laurent 34 years ago is testament to her significance in the industry. Other recent Met shows have paid homage to fashion’s late, lamented greats: Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen and Gianni Versace. Kawakubo joining that elite list suggests she might be the closest thing fashion hasto a living saint.
Related: Met Gala 2017: who nailed the trickiest dress code ever?
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