Fascination with dandyism
Last week in Paris, fashion paid its own form of homage to Les Sapeurs. And while their economy may be mired in a prolonged slump, the Japanese designers here especially seemed to be revitalized by the pleasure to be taken in defying circumstance. Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons Homme Plus and Yohji Yamamoto mounted what were by most reasonable estimates the shows that — in a season when seemingly unchecked corporate budgets turned the meager ideas of some designers into bloated Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats — exemplified the Sapeur philosophy. That is, the most ineffably luxurious quantity in life is not material