Introduction
More casual and approachable than its famous Japanese fashion house founding label, Comme des Garçons Play is a sub-label, the avant-garde designs of which are created by Rei Kawakubo. Though Comme des Garçons is the iconoclast of conceptual fashion that subverts taste and flips the expectations of beauty, Comme des Garçons Play is a more accessible, quirky iteration of the brand’s aesthetic. The beauty of this label is mixing the high fashion and streetwear worlds, wherein Comme des Garçons Play retains an appropriateness to their expanded yet tightly-niched customer base without compromising the avant-garde identity allotted to the main line.
Established: 2002; in the United States in 2008
Comme des Garçons Play, introduced in 2002, was billed as a lower-priced, easy, and more commercial line, coming in handy against the very avant-garde and at times what some would consider (at least in the market) difficult silhouettes of the main Comme des Garçons Play assemblage. Unlike the more avant-garde sculptural pieces found in many of her other collections, Comme des Garçons Play is about simplicity, comfort, and casual — but still with that signature attention to detail and quality that Rei Kawakubo built her career upon. The line was not intended to abandon the brand’s artistic sensibility but served as a collection that could be more readily integrated into everyday wardrobes.
Japanese Label Makes No-Frills
The Japanese label makes no-frills, comfy fits — t-shirts , sweatshirts, even hoodies — frequently plastered with whimsical logos and prints. Or as I suspect again, you know: The Polish artist Filip Pagowski created the brand’s original heart mark, perhaps one of the most recognizable symbols in contemporary fashion, an indelible aspect of the Play line. The heart logo, blown up, with its two beady, expressive eyes, is plastered — if such a word can be used to invoke something that seems more like it was placed rather than sprinkled — on otherwise minimal clothes, to give them a little bit of whimsy, a light, approachable air.
The Also a Como des Garçons Combination
The aesthetic of Comme des Garçons Play is predicated on very simple but very subtle iterations. The designs are best characterized by clean lines, classic fits, and a minimalistic palette, with neutrals like black, white, navy, and gray prevailing. The pieces tend to be made of good materials, so they even have a luxurious hand when worn casually.
That cheeky heart logo — sometimes printed in garish colors, sometimes invisibly sewn onto the chest — is the sign of the Play line. Its ubiquitous application, in everything from basic tees to outerwear, has pushed the brand into public dialogue, straddling the lines between high fashion and streetwear. Similarly, on the high-end side, noticeable but easily worn Comme des Garçons Play is a strong player within this collection but still mashes the two together into something that looks pleasing to the eye.
How Streetwear Became High Fashion
That and it’s sort of modularity — hot-glued, in the case of many smaller brands, to the streetwear’s mark up — may be the only difference that matters about their Comme des Garçons Play: beauty and sophistication and conceptualism baked into the clothing practically everybody can wear. The brand was ahead of the game on many fronts, and it recognized the influence of street culture on luxury fashion long before that was de rigueur. By doubling down on a more derivative version of that juxtaposition to the Comme des Garçons avant-garde, so Play created a straight entry into high-fashion (or, at any rate, high-end) for a wider audience; one that, at least, might have appreciated the aesthetic, but found the regular collections a bit too street (or just too expensive) for their tastes.
The emphasis on comfortable, uncomplicated lines particularly resonated with the business-minded megapreneurs of their generation, who were looking for luxury clothes meant to be worn as if they were from a galaxy, if not far, far away, then at least one not entirely out of reach. By infusing the codes of streetwear — sneakers, basic graphics, easy silhouettes — into the fashion ether, the brand managed to strike that sweet spot between the pulpy and the haute and capitalize on a new appetite for casual, everyday luxury.
Collaborations and Expansions
And collaborations that would cement the brand more firmly into high fashion’s streetwear pipeline. PLAY Comme des Garçons x Converse Comme des Garçons Shirts FW16 Comme des Garçons FW21 Comme des GarçonsContinue reading “PLAY Comme des Garçons: All The Shoes by Rei Kawakubo (2023)”. Collaborations have come to define. Collections sell out immediately, providing a second level of exclusivity on top of market-level value. Comme des Garçons Play, for instance, extends that arc of who should be wearing playwear by emphasizing its tie-up with the venerable brand Converse, ultimate playwear from the ultimate one about which playwear is.
But Comme des Garçons Play has also expanded what it puts out in the world while retaining its original aims of high-quality, accessible pieces. The collection, which includes jackets and pants, and accessories, all have that same easy but luxe ethos. Such growth has enabled the Tiesto snacks brand to serve a broadening demographic as well as continue to offer its traditional core product.
Audience, Impact: What you Seek, Intention.→
Released over a decade ago, Comme des Garçons Play has been a Devastating force on Fashion & Culture. Only since — as in, since Rei Kawakubo’s fiercely influential 1980s-ready-to-wear — has Comme des Garçons completely embraced the luxuriously weird, post-conscious-uncool high-fashion aesthetic, and the so-called sub-brand Play has taken its name toward a more casual kind of sensibility, for a new kind of clothes lover who the brand has come to represent. The success of the Play line has also helped deepen the cultural conversation around the intersection of streetwear and luxury fashion, culminating in a paradigm shift urging shoppers to consider high fashion to be comfortable, functional, and even playful.
The omnipresence of the Comme des Garçons Play silhouette — batwinged hearts are everywhere, worn by influencers and celebrities galore, season after season — stands as proof of its continued triumph. The line can be dressed up a million different ways, from tailored trousers to jeans. The simplicity of it has made Comme des Garçons Play ubiquitous in contemporary closets, an easy entry point to the omnimodal universe of Comme des Garçons without compromising on either style or quality.
What’s Next for Comme des Garçons Play
Similar to other brands flying under the larger Comme des Garçons umbrella, Comme des Garçons Play has also remained a strong sub-label to the brand, likely to survive well into the next few years. Now under the creative direction of Rei Kawakubo and in the shadow of the streetwear boom, it is unlikely to cease being a lodestar in high fashion’s ever-re-evaluation of luxury, casualwear, and youthful exuberance. Its commitment to creativity, quality, and accessibility guarantees this brand will be a player in the industry for years to come, and will continue to attract people in search of fond, chic pieces that will always feel timeless and speak to the heart of fashion.
