Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market.

Although not formally trained as a fashion designer, Kawakubo did study fine arts and literature at Keio University. As reported by Thurman, “In 1960, Kawakubo enrolled in her father’s university and took a degree in ‘the history of aesthetics’, a major that included the study of Asian and Western art.” After graduation in 1964, Kawakubo worked in the advertising department at the textile company, Ashai Kasei and she went on to work as a freelance stylist in 1967. Two years later, she began to design and make her own clothes under the label Comme des Garçons, before incorporating the label in 1973.

In recognition of the notable design contributions of Kawakubo, an exhibition entitled Rei Kawakubo / Commes des Garçons, Art of the In-Between was on view in 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

[via Wikipedia and WWD]