Comme des Garçons: The Crow’s

Project Brief: Create a magazine cover or interior for a company you would love to work for. 

Statement: Fashion has always been a central part of my life. I’ve been color coordinating my outfits from the age of 2, and I used to throw tantrums when I thought the shoes my mom put on me didn’t match my clothes. Growing up in the expressive and socially relaxed climate of Southern California really allowed me to grow into myself creatively and explore the things that spoke to me aesthetically. As I got older, I began to notice more and more the transformative power that clothes, and fashion provides for people. The fact that people assumed completely new identities when wearing specific things always interested me.  Coupled with my innate attraction to the dichotomy between the dark/macabre and the classically beautiful, I became drawn to the realm of anti-fashion.
                My dream job would be to work for the fashion house Comme des Garçons. Comme des Garçons is an avant-garde fashion design label created and run by designer Rei Kawakubo of Tokyo, Japan. The brand focuses on the idea of freedom and creativity above all else, through an aesthetic focus aimed at altering the human form and deconstructing the need for following the status quo.  Finding beauty in the creepy, macabre, and the off-putting has always been a passion of mine, and as a result of this I have decided to create an advertisement for the brand, highlighting a look from one of my favorite collections. The name I have decided to give to this project, and the concept behind it is, “The Crows.”
               I decided on the concept and the name because it is of great significance to the brand in its earlier days when freshly being introduced to the western markets. As a result of commonly using black as a main color palette for her collections, “her use of black garnered her fans the nickname of, “the crows.” Kawakubo uses contrasting values of black in order to give her garments depth, as well as implementing texture through use of unfinished edges and various techniques to distress the fabrics.
                I intend to emulate this aesthetic by creating an editorial illustration in which the model is a somewhat grotesque anthropomorphized crow and is just as much wearing the garment being advertised as she is the garment, which in this case will be a deconstructed, highly structural dress. The composition will include the character standing outside of and in front of a cage with a dreamscape like background surrounding her.
                I had originally intended to create this illustration traditionally in black and white and then color it digitally, however, I decided to do the whole piece digitally and in full color from the beginning. 







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