Rei Kawakubo presented the “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” collection at Paris Fashion Week in 1997.
The collection was created for Kawakubo’s label Comme des Garçons and is widely known for padded, irregular forms that disrupted conventional ideas of the body’s silhouette. The garments created bulges and distortions rather than following the usual aim of flattering or lengthening the figure.
The collection became one of the most influential examples of conceptual fashion in the late twentieth century. It challenged the assumption that clothing should simply decorate or reveal an already accepted body shape.
“Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” is often nicknamed the “Lumps and Bumps” collection. Comme des Garçons is the label, while Rei Kawakubo is the designer who conceived and presented it.