A biography for Rei Kawakubohasn’t been written yet.
“I don't like the word 'feminist.' I don't like the word 'ambitious.' I do like the word 'anti-establishment.'”
“What you wear can largely govern your feelings and your emotions, and how you look influences the way people regard you. So fashion plays an important role on both the practical level and the aesthetic level.”
“Clothes are only completed when somebody actually wears them. If they were art, they could be more abstract. As long as something is new and has never been seen before, I don't mind if people call it art. Wear them if you dare.”
“Fashion alone is so far from being the whole story. It seems that with fashion, as with art, things are getting easier in one sense, but at the same time, it is getting harder to be stimulated about things or excite people.”
“What someone wears is an expression of oneself. When you're just comfortable with what you're wearing, you don't have new thoughts. I want people to feel something and think about who they are.”
“I would have liked to invent the plain white shirt, with a skirt and pants to go with it.”
“The monsters I thought about are those that don't fit in - those who think differently from the majority, the people of exception, outsiders. I wish that society would place more importance and value on these kinds of monsters.”
“My intention is not to make clothes. My head would be too restricted if I only thought about making clothes.”
“I am not aware I am an icon.”
“Although I do not believe in fame, what it brings me is the fact that I can ask someone to work with me, and they do not say no.”
“All kinds of ways of expression are spreading out all over the place, information is overflowing, and it's harder and harder to be excited about anything.”
“Growing up in postwar Japan has made me the person I am, but it is not why I do the work I do. It is a very personal thing - everything comes from inside.”
“I think the media has some responsibility to bear for people becoming more conservative.”
“When you put on clothes that are fighting against something, you can feel your courage grow. Clothing can set you free.”
“The main pillar of my activity is making clothes, but this can never be the perfect and only vehicle of expression.”
“Many parts of the media have created the situation where uninteresting fashion can thrive.”
“My approach is simple. It is nothing other than what I am thinking at the time I make each piece of clothing, whether I think it is strong and beautiful. The result is something that other people decide.”
“For me, creation can only come out of a certain kind of unhappiness. They say in Japan, this thing like the hungry spirit - the hungry mind - is what gets you going forward.”
“My design process never starts or finishes. I am always hoping to find something through the mere act of living my daily life. I do not work from a desk and do not have an exact starting point for any collection.”
“I want to show people that tailoring has value, which I don't see anymore in men's fashion.”