Fashion goesZen

H&M has established a tradition of selecting featured designers as partners for each major collection. After Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Victor & Rolf, now japanese(!) fashion Label Comme des Garçons is next. According to this press release:

Comme des Garçons’ founder and head designer Rei Kawakubo will create this autumn’s guest designer collection at H&M. Rei Kawakubo, famous and admired for her creativity and artistry, will design a women’s and a men’s collection, with some pieces for children too. Accessories and an exclusive unisex fragrance will also be included in the collection.

"I have always been interested in the balance between creation and business. It is a dilemma, although for me creation has always been the first priority. It is a fascinating challenge to work with H&M since it is a chance to take the dilemma to its extreme, and try to solve it", says Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons.

“Rei Kawakubo has been at the top of our wish list for a long time and we are thrilled that she has chosen to collaborate with us. We have tremendous respect for Kawakubo’s fashion philosophy of questioning fashion’s ingrained patterns, and admire her artistic approach to design. We are particularly excited that the collection will be launched in Japan, Kawakubo’s native country, at the same time as the launch of our new store there", explains Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor, H&M.

The world launch of the collection will be at the opening of H&M’s second store in Tokyo, Japan, in the beginning of November. Launch date for other H&M markets will be a few days later.

Comme des Garçons Ltd was established in 1973 as a company based on creativity and originality. Always pushing the frontiers of design and never accepting the status quo, Comme des Garcons now produces 14 different brands and employs nearly 700 people, with shops in over 25 countries.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) was established in Sweden in 1947 and is synonymous with affordable as well as up-to-date and high quality fashion. H&M has a wide product range that is divided into a number of different concepts for women, men, teenagers, children and cosmetics. The company’s clothing collections are created by its own designers, pattern makers and buyers. H&M has around 68,000 employees and over 1,500 H&M-stores in 28 countries. For further information visit www.hm.com.