Expect a women’s, men’s, childrenswear, accessories and unisex fragrance set to launch in the Japanese label’s home city of Tokyo before its unleashed to shoppers worldwide. The collection itself holds extraordinary possibilities with Kawakubo herself feeling challenged by the creative/commercial conflict.
 
The Commes des Garcons line was born in 1969 by a designer with no formal fashion design or ‘clothes-making’ training. The men’s line was added in 1978 but it wasn’t until her first Paris show in 1981 that the anti-fashion, art-styled, aesthetically challenging fashion took off, leading the ‘Hiroshima Chic’ movement along with the influx of other Japanese designers like Yohji Yammamoto and Issey Miyake.

Kawakubo stands as one of the few designers today who refuses to compromise her creative integrity for financial gain – luckily she hasn’t had to. She has now applied her unconventional approach to other fields, namely retailing with the launch of the ‘curated’ Dover Street Market in London and various temporary, ‘guerrilla’ stores around the world.

It’s guaranteed cash in the bank for H&M but I’m already resigning myself to the sad fact that the likelihood I’ll be able to get my mitts on so much as a carrier bag is doubtful unless I start camping outside the Oxford Street branch of H&M. Now.