Comme des Garçons, the Quiet Empire
August 24th, 2025 | kobi ansong
Rei Kawakubo by Deyan Sudjic
In a Clipse’s GQ feature Pusha T inevitably discusses Ye, recalling a time when he advised him to create his own LVMH:
“‘Hey, man, Virgil got his line poppin…Why don't you make your own LVMH, bro? You got Virgil. You got Yeezy. You have Just Don’s.’”
Essentially, Pusha was telling Ye to look around at the talent around him (not to mention Alex Williams and Jerry Lorenzo): Don’t chase establishment, create your own.
Rei Kawakubo said fuck it, and did just that. She’s the Founder, Creative Director, and Owner of Comme des Garçons. Over the last five decades, she has quietly built her own empire. For most new labels, they hit $50-$100M in revenue, then luxury conglomerates and private equity come knocking. They offer a major cash influx as well as operational and infrastructural support. Boom. You’re in business. Until, you’re not.
In 2021, barely 10 years after inception, LVMH acquired a majority of Off-White for an undisclosed amount. But after rocky sales following the passing of Virgil, LVMH dumped the brand to a firm known for licensing distressed labels downmarket, the kind of playbook that lands ex-luxury names in PacSun (BoF).
Comme des Garçons generates revenues north of $450m per year. Kawakubo along with her husband, Adrian Joffe, are sole owners of the corporation, which includes a portfolio of nearly 20 sub-labels including Junya Watanabe, as well as Dover Street Market, the global retailer.
Peter Lindbergh for Comme des Garcons (1988)
Capital investment can be vital with the potential to boost a label’s trajectory. But for Kawakubo, independence protected her from outside pressure and allowed her to deploy unconventional strategies.
Kawakubo’s avant-garde approach isn’t contained to her creative direction, but her business as well. In the early 2000s, Comme des Garçons launched their infamous guerrilla store era. The five year campaign from 2004 - 2009, saw shabby pop-ups launch in non-fashion hub cities. The storefronts were minimal, cheap, and seedy. It worked. The company claimed a Warsaw store hit “300 percent of its projected monthly sales in the first week" (Highsnobiety).
Dover Street Market, Paris
Comme des Garçons’s unique guerrilla strategy is the seed that led to the launch of Dover Street Market. The conceptual retailer operates seven locations globally, while also providing a strategic advantage for its owners. By retailing newer, experiential, and established brands, Comme des Garçons is able to keep a temperature on consumers.
Early on, Kawakubo embraced diversification as a recession proof strategy. Once Comme des Garçons established a worldview, albeit one that was expensive and aspirational, Kawakubo began to launch sub-labels at various, more affordable price points to increase market potential.
In 1987, an interviewer asked how Kawakubo decided on the name Comme des Garçons, instead of her own name, like most designers. She responded, “I didn’t think of myself as a designer. It was a business, a group of people working together. I wanted a name that would represent the whole group” (Vogue, 1987).
Kawakubo isn’t a designer who simply tolerates business. She holistically embraces all aspects of Comme des Garçons. “It is true to say that I ‘design’ the company, not just clothes. Creation does not end with just the clothes. New interesting business ideas, revolutionary retail strategies, unexpected collaborations, nurturing of in-house talent, all are examples of Comme des Garçons’ creation” (032c).
Kawakubo did what Ye should’ve did, and what LVMH probably never wanted her to pull off. She stuck to her avant garde roots, built an undeniable ecosystem, and won.