Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo Designs New Pearl Necklaces With Mikimoto
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Comme des Garçons is going one step further to recontextualize the pearl necklace for a more inclusive audience. The brand has teamed with Mikimoto on a second collaboration, this one including seven necklace designs that mix pearls with sterling silver findings.
Comme des Garçons’ founder and enigmatic creative force Rei Kawakubo is said to have personally designed each style, which juxtapose white Akoya Mikimoto pearls beside silver fangs, studs and safety pins. The collection ranges in price from $3,500 to $7,200 and will be available at Comme des Garçons stores in Japan, Paris and New York, as well as multiple Dover Street Market and Mikimoto locations starting March 5.
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“The value of traditional beauty held by Mikimoto Pearls combined with the completely opposite strength of chains was the design point of the first collection. For this second collection, safety pins, studs and fangs, which express even more a strong image of rebellious spirit, are combined with Mikimoto pearls to make a single design. Two things that never exist together in a design becomes one design,” Kawakubo said of the collaboration in a statement.
Comme des Garçons International president Adrian Joffe added, “It’s our great pleasure to continue our partnership with Mikimoto, with seven new styles designed by Kawakubo that merge the simplicity and timelessness of pearls with a modern view to who can wear them. We share Mikimoto’s approach to design and production — an unwavering commitment to quality, authenticity — and these pieces continue to uphold those values while subverting classical notions of what pearls can look like through the inclusion of studs, fangs and safety pins. They are for everyone.”
Mikimoto and Comme des Garçons released the first iteration of their two-year partnership in January 2020. It represented the first fine jewelry collaboration in Comme’s brand history. The collection arrived in a moment when classic preppy codes began to be reinterpreted with a new sense of grit and gender fluidity. In the time since, an interest in pearls as an accessory of power has only accelerated — particularly in the U.S. following the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris, who counts pearl necklaces among her favorite wardrobe staples.
At the time, Kawakubo said of the line: “Pearls line up alongside diamonds in terms of value. Myriad stories spring to mind concerning pearls. The image of pearls overlap in places with the image of Comme des Garçons. If we talk about women’s jewelry, one usually thought of pearls. Recently, I’ve noticed how men also look good when they wear pearls…A traditional company such as Mikimoto, with a 127-year-old history, clashing with a breaking of the rules can lead to something new. Avoid the usual gratuitous logo-adding way of collaboration. Result an exercise in creation, making something that looks good, emphasizing the beauty of the pearl itself.”
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