Look 2, cape and dress
2023
Return to the source collection, autumn-winter 2023
Medium
wool, cotton, polyester, nylon and metal (fastenings)
Measurements
(a) 25.0 cm (centre back) 48.0 cm (sleeve length) (cape)
(b) 141.0 cm (centre back) 38.0 cm (waist, flat) (dress)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, 2025
© Comme des Garçons
Gallery location
Level 3, NGV International
About this work
Demonstrating Kawakubo’s interest in pattern-making and construction, this outfit from her 2023 Return to the Source collection, encapsulated the ways in which she disrupts dress conventions through proportion and deconstructionism. She has become known for setting herself and her team technical challenges or restraints – for example, not allowing any stitching or constructing entire garments from a single, repeated pattern piece.
Artwork Details
Explore the collection
The Virgin and Child
FLANDERS
Forest and sun
Max ERNST
Gasometers at Clichy
Paul SIGNAC
Study from the human body
Francis BACON
Portrait group: The singer Farinelli and friends
Jacopo AMIGONI
Pair of glass coolers
SAINT-CLOUD PORCELAIN FACTORY, Saint-Cloud (manufacturer)
Wine glass
ENGLAND (manufacturer)
Two old men disputing
REMBRANDT Harmensz. van Rijn
Frederick van Velthuysen and his wife, Josina
Thomas de KEYSER
Big nude III
Helmut NEWTON
The Garden of Love
MASTER OF THE STORIES OF HELEN; Antonio VIVARINI (studio of)
Armchair, from the Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna
Otto WAGNER (designer); GEBRÜDER THONET, Vienna (manufacturer)
Self-portrait
Joseph WRIGHT of Derby
Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom
Edwin LANDSEER
Mother and child
Cornelis de VOS
Rough weather at Étretat
Claude MONET
Coffee pot
GEORG JENSEN SØLVSMEDIE, Copenhagen (manufacturer); Henning KOPPEL (designer)
Boulevard Montmartre, morning, cloudy weather
Camille PISSARRO
(Anna Romana Wright reading by candlelight)
Joseph WRIGHT of Derby
The Man of Sorrows in the arms of the Virgin
Hans MEMLING
A monk with a book
TITIAN
The grasshopper
Jules LEFEBVRE
A lion attacking a horse
George STUBBS
The Mayor's Cup
William KERR
Horses bathing in the sea
Lucy KEMP-WELCH
Sideboard, from the Langer apartment
Adolf LOOS (designer)
The Banquet of Cleopatra
Giambattista TIEPOLO
The melon
Édouard MANET
Gates of Venice (View of the Venetian lagoon with the Tower of Marghera)
Francesco GUARDI
The plain of Gennevilliers, yellow fields
Gustave CAILLEBOTTE