“Not what has been seen before, not what has been repeated, instead, new discoveries that look towards the future, that are liberated and lively.” Press release Comme des Garçons 1997

Comme des Garçons, ‘Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body . Spring/summer 1997. Photo: Yannis Vlamos

Recently, MoMu acquired an original spring-summer 1997 Comme des Garçons dress, from the emblematic ‘Body Meets Dress’ collection by Rei Kawakubo at the Didier Ludot Paris auction. It will be featured in the Game Changers exhibition after it has gone through a thorough restoration by Kim Verkens, MoMu’s restorator who has brought many masterpieces back to life.

Comme des Garçons, ‘Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body, prototype, spring/summer 1997 Dress in jersey, manmade fibre. Photo: Stanny Van Dederen

The padded, lumpy dresses and jackets (the collection was nicknamed Lumps n Bumps and even Quasimodo by the press) heralded, right at the turn of the 20th century, a new image in which the body and garment became one. The body, which had been released from the corset in the 20th century, and was since moved around freely in  an autonomous garment, now became fused with the outside world, Rei Kawakubo bridged the gap between the person and the surrounding space. Notoriously sparse, she called the collection ‘rethinking the body’, dismissing the dark interpretations of critics who saw a ‘woman who carries the weight on her shoulders’ in the arched backsides and the use of “housewife” gingham fabrics in pastel colors. Choreographer Merce Cunningham, who used the collection in his ‘Scenario’ production, explained the shapes with a more friendly, familiar eye : “the lumps are familiar shapes we can see every day, a bike messenger with a bag over the shoulder, a tourist with fanny pack, a baby on a mother’s arm.”  Art critics have  linked these dresses to the work of Surrealist artists like Hans Bellmer, Salvador Dalí or fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.

Georgina Godley Lump and Bump Autumn/Winter 1986
Asymmetric padded underwear white cotton Lycra with polyester filling.
Photography by Cindy Palmano

Similarly, the work of Georgina Godley, a British artist and former fashion designer, escapes the representation of the female body as either sexy/ sexless: in the 1980s, she did not want to choose between deconstructed, shapeless garments or the power silhouettes with broad shoulders. She also did not share the 1980s beauty ideals of a fit, muscular and hard physique for women in order to show their power. Godley opted for the ‘third way’: worshipping the female body through the use of soft, padded curves and exaggerated arches and hoops on her dresses. Her inspiration came both from African fertility goddesses as well as the women of Vermeer. She celebrates femininity without making the female body into a symmetrical, passive object. Her use of padding to  create bumps in unexpected zones, the zig-zagging looped hems and dilated curves could be seen as a feminist answer to the mostly masculine tradition of Surrealism.