Rei Kawakubo

For me, I haven't succeeded in any way whatsoever.

— Rei Kawakubo

I am not aware I am an icon.

— Rei Kawakubo

Beauty is whatever anyone thinks is beautiful.

— Rei Kawakubo

My energy comes from freedom and a rebellious spirit.

— Rei Kawakubo

I work in three shades of black.

— Rei Kawakubo

Feeling free inside oneself is being free.

— Rei Kawakubo

The same spirit runs through everything I do.

— Rei Kawakubo

You can tell if it's a good collection if people are afraid of it. In ten years, everyone will love it.

— Rei Kawakubo

There are no limits - I endeavor to make clothes that didn't exist before.

— Rei Kawakubo

For something to be beautiful it doesn’t have to be pretty.

— Rei Kawakubo

The corporateness of the fashion industry tends to take away or distort the freedom of creation.

— Rei Kawakubo

Comme des Garcons is a gift to oneself, not something to appeal or to attract the opposite sex

— Rei Kawakubo

Even though it is difficult, it is easier for me to make my own things, by myself.

— Rei Kawakubo

I don't think of myself as anyone special, and I would not know how to define myself.

— Rei Kawakubo

I built my work from within instead of satisfying a demand for sexualised and ostentatious clothing.

— Rei Kawakubo

I am a clothes maker, and that's all I am. I only want to talk about the making of the clothes. I…

— Rei Kawakubo

Not only in the creative world but also in the sports world. The most successful achievers in sports are people that are…

— Rei Kawakubo

It was also never wanting to be part of any group or movement or anything that was the done thing. I hated…

— Rei Kawakubo

The very, very first thing that I wanted was to make a living - be independent and have a job. It might…

— Rei Kawakubo

The first thing we do is sit around a table and discuss what we could pick up from daily life, from space.…

— Rei Kawakubo

I always just wanted to have enough to carry on. I never had ambitions to take over the world or be a…

— Rei Kawakubo

Fashion alone is so far from being the whole story. It seems that with fashion, as with art, things are getting easier…

— Rei Kawakubo

I am just working every day, day to day, with what I believe. It's a very ordinary way of dealing with your…

— Rei Kawakubo

The place I am always looking for - because in order to keep the business, I need to make a little compromise…

— Rei Kawakubo

In Comme des Garçons, I hardly do any sketches; there's no fittings on bodies, there's no models that come in and say,…

— Rei Kawakubo

I'm always looking to make something that didn't exist before, fumbling about in the dark, not just while making a collection. The…

— Rei Kawakubo

The freedom I give myself for the business is in deciding to take part in the Paris collections, but also having other…

— Rei Kawakubo

If you have total freedom to design, you won't get anything interesting. So I give myself restraints in order to kind of…

— Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction the meaning of it is born. Without the wearing…

— Rei Kawakubo

I started with wanting to think about witches, about strong women who have special powers - who are often misunderstood. Then I…

— Rei Kawakubo

I can't become naked for everybody. It's never going to be possible for the person to write the whole story completely, so…

— Rei Kawakubo

If I do something I think is new, it will be misunderstood, but if people like it, I will be disappointed because…

— Rei Kawakubo

The theme of the collection this time is MONSTER. It's not about the typical Monster you find in sci-fi and video games.…

— Rei Kawakubo

I make clothes for a woman who is not swayed by what her husband thinks.

— Rei Kawakubo

I don't look very much at magazines or go to vintage stores.

— Rei Kawakubo

Many parts of the media have created the situation where uninteresting fashion can thrive.

— Rei Kawakubo

The most successful achievers in sports are people that are really driven and have that spirit of hunger.

— Rei Kawakubo

I'd rather [the collection] have no title. Journalists like titles. That's why I give them to you.

— Rei Kawakubo

This idea of collaborating with designers - that's something I can identify with.

— Rei Kawakubo

I was not thinking about the age of Internet when I was making the fall-winter 2012 collection.

— Rei Kawakubo