Look 3, jacket and playsuit
2022 {Lamentation collection, spring-summer 2023}
Medium
polyester polyeurathane, polyester, cotton, plastic
Measurements
(a) 70.0 cm (centre back) 49.0 cm (waist, flat) (jacket)
(b) 75.0 cm (centre back) 33.5 cm (waist, flat) (playsuit)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, 2025
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
The first three looks in the Lamentation runway presentation emerged as cocoon-like silhouettes in a restrained palette of black and white, layered with felted and painted lace. The show’s statement framed the collection as ‘A lamentation for the sorrow in the world today’ and an expression of the desire for unity. Presented shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the collection was inevitably seen as a response to the war. Yet Kawakubo resists fixed meanings, insisting that fashion is ‘something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction, the meaning of it is born’.