Vintage 1997 Comme des Garcons Lump & Bump Shirt Dress

Detail: Iconic vintage Comme des Garcons dress from the “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection, through which the designer intended to unify body lines with the dress. Also known as the "Lumps & Bumps collection for spring summer 1997. 

This piece is a shirt dress with front zip from collar to hip level. Medium weight woven gabardine fabric - no stretch. Cape sleeve construction. Asymmetrical seamed panels to front and back enabling the dress to be worn in several different ways. This dress would have been worn with a lump & bump vest under garment

 In 20th century fashion, the natural beauty of the human body was valued above all. However, this trend placed restrictions on dressmaking. Kawakubo tried to eliminate the stagnant relationship between the human body and the clothes that limited each other's development; that is, the human body restricted the clothes, while the clothes restricted the body. Merce Cunningham (1919–2009), an eminent choreographer, was inspired by the collection to produce the dance performance "Scenario" (1997). Video Link

Rei Kawakubo continues to explore new ways of expression, and stands at the very edge of fashion language, and its relationship with culture and the arts in general.

Period: Spring Summer 1997

Colour: Grey & White

Sizing: UK8-10. Bust 34". Waist 28". Hips 34". Length 48"

Fabric: 100% Polyester Gabardine

Condition: Excellent / Near Perfect

Origin: Manufactured in Japan

Care: Dry Clean

Grey and white CDG lumps and bump shirt dress 1997.

In the autumn/winter 1996 collection, Kawakubo experimented with padded humps. The end product - nicknamed Quasimodo by the tabloid press for obvious reasons - had removable pads positioned in a variety of places. Her biannual magazine Six (from sixth sense), with its esoteric photographs and references to Zen, will probably one day be the subject of Freudian analysis. Despite its unorthodox associations, Comme des Garçons has populist appeal: there are more than 300 outlets in 33 countries worldwide. Rei Kawakubo was the first to use `real' people as catwalk models, including Hollywood stars Dennis Hopper, Matt Dillon, John Malkovich and John Hurt. Wearer of austere expressions and giver of few interviews, Kawakubo said, in Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons (1990), `What I do is concerned with the long term, and yet fashion is cyclical. It is a paradox, but it doesn't bother me. It's always exciting to do a new collection. Vintage Comme des Garcons "Body-Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection summer 1997.