In the vast history of the Comme des Garçons in universe, 1969 marked the metaphorical Big Bang, when a young Kawakubo launched her debut line in Tokyo.

Previously working as a freelance stylist, Kawakubo resorted to making costumes herself when she couldn’t find what she wanted. Spurred by a disinterest in what was commercially available at the time, Kawakubo’s goal with the label was not only to make a living but to do so by creating garments she actually liked. In 1973, the company was officially registered as Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd. Despite literally translating to “like the boys,” Comme des Garçons was initially geared exclusively towards women. In 1978, when Kawakubo expanded the offering to include menswear, she introduced her first menswear line, Comme des Garçons Homme.

Comme des Garçons enjoyed its first taste of success in Japan during the early 1970s, and by 1975 Kawakubo was showing Comme des Garçons collections in Tokyo. In 1981, Kawakubo showed in Paris for the first time, widely considered the dawn of the “anti-fashion” era. At the time womenswear was dominated by gaudy, decidedly feminine silhouettes where ‘80s Amazonian super-models and designers such as Gianni Versace reigned supreme. Kawakubo’s Comme challenged the status quo, with distressed, drapey and dark garments that were not necessarily form flattering. The Western press referred to Kawakubo’s designs as “Hiroshima Chic,” ascribing political meaning where there was none and casting Kawakubo’s designs as a strictly Japanese creation—in retrospect a terribly shortsighted descriptor considering Kawakubo’s genius and accomplishments since.

From that debut Parisian collection through today, the Rei Kawakubo-designed Comme des Garçons mainline label has remained decidedly anti-establishment, proposing collections that often are more a statement on world affairs or art than wearable creations. Take the iconic “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body”—aka “lumps and bumps”—Spring/Summer 1997 collection that challenged fashion’s collective fetishism of the “perfect” feminine silhouette. In the heat of the moment the collection was ridiculed but in retrospect is revered as a stroke of genius, a recurring theme in Kawakubo’s legacy. To this day, the Comme des Garçons line remains the most directional within the Comme universe.

In a testament to the line’s abstract nature, Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Andrew Bolton revealed that Fall/Winter 2005 and Spring/Summer 2012, are in fact Kawakubo’s least favorite collections as they were too easily understood. Really, it’s easier to think of Comme des Garçons as an ever-evolving work of art. The line is where Kawakubo presents her most radical designs and where Comme’s myriad diffusion lines find their inspiration, offering more palatable takes on what Comme des Garçons represents.

While not the first diffusion line launched by Kawakubo and Comme—that would be Comme des Garçons Homme—CdG Homme Plus is the second most abstract label under the Comme umbrella. Founded in 1984 and immediately shown at Paris Fashion Week, CdG Homme Plus serves as Kawakubo’s purest vision of the men’s wardrobe.

Despite Comme des Garçons originating as a womenswear brand, the designer famously stated in 1995 that “the basics of clothing lie in men’s fashion,” principle of which is the suit. Granted then, it makes sense that over the last 30 years a core tenet of Homme Plus has been “broken tailoring”: cut-out suits, elongated and asymmetrical proportions and the use of non-traditional materials (Spring/Summer 2018’s sequins, for instance). For Kawakubo, her avant-garde menswear is a study in the “purest” form of clothing, which she in turn destroys, rebuilds and inverts as only she can.
With Homme Plus’ imaginative and abstract garments not readily wearable—nor affordable—the line has become, like Comme des Garçons for women, a collection of coveted clothing-as-art pieces. For veteran Comme connoisseurs who have graduated from the various diffusion lines, Homme Plus is the answer for those looking to revel in unfettered Kawakubo genius. So while it may not be Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd’s most profitable line, it is certainly crucial to maintaining the magical qualities of Rei’s Comme universe.

As the name implies, Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Evergreen is an extension of Homme Plus. Essentially a label focused on re-editions, Evergreen selected past season Homme Plus pieces which where in turn slightly reworked, whether through a change of material, a small alteration or introducing new colorways, thereby breathing new life into the garment. Launched in 2005, the archival line was was led by Kawakubo until it was discontinued.

Comme des Garçons Homme (CdGH) is a menswear line and the first diffusion label to exist within the Comme universe. Launched in 1978, CdGH operates under the guiding ethos of “Good Sense, Good Quality.” Designed by Kawakubo until 2003, the line is now under the purview of her protegé Junya Watanabe.

While CdGH is more conservative and traditional than the disruptive Homme Plus line, it still challenges conventional menswear, acting as a buffer between other Comme diffusion lines—like Homme Deux and SHIRT—and the fashion-as-art Homme Plus offering. With Watanabe now at the helm of CdGH, the line bears some aesthetic similarities to his eponymous line, with patchwork and unique textiles at the forefront of contemporary CdGH collections.

Despite that Homme Plus is designed by Kawakubo and more representative of Comme’s design philosophy, CdGH is arguably is the true menswear center of the Comme universe. Homme Plus, Homme Deux and Homme SHIRT all technically orbit around Comme des Garçons Homme, which itself offers the most comprehensive and balanced study of menswear amongst them all. Injected with just enough Comme DNA to differentiate itself from other brands, CdGH still draws on classic menswear elements to offer a cohesive whole that the various sub-brands can’t match independently.

First introduced in 1993, Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons’ roots actually go back to the early 1980s, when the now defunct Comme des Garçons Robe de Chambre was launched to offer simple garments for women. When the line colloquially referred to as Comme Comme launched, it took up a similar mission of offering simpler, more accessible garments and by 2004 Robe de Chambre had been absorbed into Comme Comme.

In that sense, Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons is the womenswear equivalent of CdGH: a more commercially viable, yet still artistic collection of garments that is at home on the runway and in the wardrobes of everyday people.

Comme des Garçons Homme Deux is a testament to two things: the importance Kawakubo places on menswear and her unwavering commitment to challenging the status quo of traditional fashion. Founded in 1987, Homme Deux was the third menswear line Kawakubo launched in under a decade. Essentially Western menswear manufactured using traditional Japanese techniques, Kawakubo introduced the line as a way to examine European ideals of menswear without corrupting the DNA of CdGH and Homme Plus. Still, Homme Deux is designed by Kawakubo and elements of the Comme universe inevitably seep into every CdG Homme Deux collection, albeit in much more subtle ways, from oversized buttons to exaggerated lapels.

Perhaps most telling about Homme Deux is how the line has been marketed domestically in Japan. In Dorinne Kando’s About Face: Performing Race in Fashion and Theater she cites a print-ad for Homme Deux that ran in Japanese business publications which offers insight into Homme Deux’s place within the Comme hierarchy.

>>>COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME DEUX is businesswear for this historical era. Clothing that is easy to wear, tastefully elegant, not restrictive to the body. As “preppie” clothing represented the Ivy Leaguer of the American East Coast, this is the new business wear based on the aesthetic sensibility of Japan’s business elite.

In other words, Homme Deux is menswear done just a bit differently.

Launched in 1988, like the name implies Comme des Garçons SHIRT is focused on a singular garment: the shirt. Catering to both men and women—a relative rarity in a highly segmented Comme universe—CdG SHIRT set out to offer fun and colorful takes on a usually mundane wardrobe item.

In a sense, CdG SHIRT is the antithesis to the dark, complex fashion proposed by the likes of mainline Comme des Garçons and Homme Plus—a testament to the multitudes of Kawakubo, who oversees this line as well. In fact, CdG SHIRT perfectly illustrates the complexity of Kawakubo’s Comme universe, where the study of a single garment can birth an entire line of clothing.

Over the years, CdG SHIRT’s offering has expanded to more than just shirting, with a new focus on menswear staples in particular. Today, CdG SHIRT collections include everything from pants and T-shirts to blazers, boxers and, of course, the button-down shirt.

In 1981 Kawakubo launched one of her first true diffusion lines, Tricot Comme des Garçons. At first exclusively knitwear-focused, Kawakubo wished to explore a single category much more extensively than an ordinary ready-to-wear collection allowed. Like CdG Shirt, Tricot explores one category to its limits but opts for a technique (knitting) over a specific garment.

Exclusively womenswear, Tricot CdG has become a proofing ground for many of Kawakubo’s protégés. The Comme matriarch entrusted her most notable pupil, Junya Watanabe, with Tricot CdG in 1987 and today the line is under the stewardship of Tao Kurihara, another Kawakubo acolyte. While Kurihara launched a short-lived eponymous label under the Comme umbrella in 2005, by 2011 the label was disbanded and Kurihara returned her focus to Tricot CdG.

While Tricot—literally “knitwear” in French—was once singularly focused, the line has since expanded to include non-knitted garments. The Tricot CdG aesthetic is decidedly more playful than that of the mainline collection, or even Comme Comme. Today’s Tricot CdG is reminiscent of a non-Comme brand helmed by a former Kawakubo pupil: Chitose Abe’s Sacai.

Kawakubo most noteworthy protégé is undoubtedly Junya Watanabe. Not only did he work directly under Kawakubo, the designer once oversaw Tricot CdG, currently designs Comme des Garçons Homme and additionally runs an eponymous label under the Comme umbrella. Watanabe’s eponymous line launched with womenswear in 1992, introducing menswear in 2005.

Considerably more outre than his menswear offering, Watanabe’s womenswear is more in line with Comme des Garçons guiding ethos. While his collections for both genders usually boast a similar inspiration, the garments for women often feature more unconventional materials. Junya Watanabe MAN, for its part, offers riffs on classic menswear that study a specific era, textile or reference in an anthropological way. Despite high price points and often unconventional proportions, Junya Watanabe MAN remains amongst the most popular and ultimately most worn fashion lines within the Comme universe.

Although both gender-specific offerings have garnered widespread critical acclaim, Junya Watanabe MAN Comme des Garçons has a cult-like following that at one point led to the creation of a diffusion line offering menswear for women: Junya Watanabe MAN Pink Comme des Garçons. Now defunct, the line spoke to the gravity of Watanabe’s role within the Comme universe. While his womenswear is in large part a continuation of Kawakubo’s experimentalist aesthetic, his menswear’s emphasis on traditional workwear is a foil to Kawakubo’s broken tailoring.

Another diffusion line, eYe Junya Watanabe MAN Comme des Garçons, was reserved for collaborations between the eponymous label and brands like New Balance, The North Face, Levi’s, Brooks Brothers and Lacoste. While it was originally treated as a line unto itself, it has apparently been folded back into Junya Watanabe MAN in recent years, as collaborations no longer carry the eYe distinction.

Compared to Watanabe, Kei Minomiya’s lifecycle at Comme has been rapid to say the least. Hired in 2008 as a patternmaker, the designer clearly impressed Kawakubo and Joffe during his short tenure and within four years was offered the opportunity to create his own label. Despite the ubiquitous presence of veritable design titans Kawakubo and Watanabe, Minomiya may be the most technically complex designer to orbit the Comme universe.

Launched in 2012 Noir Kei Minomiya—as the name implies—is a womenswear line devoid of color, presenting solely black and white collections. The simplicity of the palette lends itself to showcasing the true beauty of Noir—the intricate fabrication techniques, ranging from laser-cutting to the use of metal.

“Pop, avant-garde and basic.” That was Ganryu’s tagline.

Launched in 2007, the line was helmed by Fumito Ganryu, a designer who cut his teeth as a patternmaker under Junya Watanabe. Ganryu, the line, was something of an outlier within the Comme universe, playing with elements of streetwear—or, in Ganryu’s words, casualwear—rather than classic tailoring or menswear tropes. While Ganryu garments were inherently whacky in both proportion and color palette, they were easily wearable. A hit with some of the most notable menswear boutiques, Ganryu was celebrated for its absurdist take on streetwear staples.

Much to contemporary menswear’s collective chagrin, Ganryu, the designer, announced last Spring that he was parting ways with Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd leaving his eponymous line in flux. Thankfully, the designer returned for the Spring/Summer 2019 season with Fumito Ganryu, however the line is no longer affiliated with CdG.

Unlike others on this list, Gosha Rubchinskiy is not a protégé of Rei Kawakubo but rather of her husband and company president, Adrian Joffe. Rubchinskiy started out in 2008 with a handful of graphic T-shirts centered around skaters and post-soviet youth. After meeting through a mutual friend, Joffe was impressed with Rubchinskiy’s collection and placed an order for Dover Street Market. Rubchinskiy, sensing it was his big break, funded production himself in Serbia, but wound up in debt after covering logistics and customs expenses. When he informed Joffe that he could not cover production costs Joffe—a self-described post-Soviet enthusiast—offered to handle it himself via the CdG network. “[Gosha] designs the collection, I make it, I sell it; this is how it all started,” Joffe said to Business of Fashion.

Impressed with the critical and commercial response, the relationship evolved beyond production and Comme ended up purchasing the Gosha Rubchinskiy trademark and business, with Rubchinskiy hired as full-time Creative Director. Under the Comme umbrella and guided by retail savant Joffe, Rubchinskiy grew into one of the most formidable new-wave labels in fashion, helping to solidify the industry’s acceptance of luxury streetwear.

Gosha Rubchinskiy was unlike any other line within the Comme universe. That is until early 2018, when Comme and Rubchinskiy announced that the eponymous label would cease to exist as we know it. Instead, the label will take a new approach towards marketing and selling clothing, though it remains to be seen exactly what that will entail.

Geared towards a younger male customer, Cdg SHIRT BOY is one of the most recent additions to the Comme portfolio. Launched in 2015, the diffusion line of a diffusion line is either the most fashion-forward entry-level label or at the lowest rung among the gamut of CdG fashion lines.

In the few seasons since the brand was introduced, CdG SHIRT BOY’s offering has been decidedly more playful than other CdG menswear lines. The BOY line relies heavily on graphics, bright colors and a sense of imperfection that stands in stark contrast to the deeply researched and meticulous garments from other Comme brands. With an off-kilter logo and imperfect hand-style typography, the label is a celebration of quirky branding. Attainable in terms of price point and aesthetic, BOY is one of the most promising lines in our current logo-centric era.

Part retail project, part collaborative endeavour, Comme des Garçons Good Design Shop is a joint venture with Tokyo-based retailer Kenmei Nagaoka. Step into any Dover Street Market location and you’ll inevitably find a section filled with a smattering of seemingly random CdG-branded garments, accessories and shoes. This is Good Design Shop, an assortment of simple, branded goods with creative takes on the brand’s logo. From simple hoodies to nylon coach’s jackets and football scarves to the iconic translucent plastic tote, Good Design Shop is home to some of the most notorious—and commercially successful—items in the CdG universe.

Launched in 2011, Good Design Shop has consistently expanded and is now a fixture in Dover Street Market locations. Immensely popular, Design Shop offers customers product that seamlessly fits into most wardrobes, at a relatively affordable price point while stile boasting that coveted CdG logo.

In May of 2018, Joffe announced the partnership between CdG and Kenmei Nagaoka had come to a close, however a new brand was on the horizon.

Following the closure of Good Design Shop, Joffe began teasing a new venture. Initially an unnamed “internet-based brand”, the label—which he later revealed as CDG—is in fact the spiritual successor to GDS.

When first teased by Joffe, many assumed the line would be sold through Dover Street’s various e-commerce platforms, or third-party sites like Union and SSENSE. But, on April 28th, it became apparent that Joffe was referring instead to a line quite literally based on the internet—as in, inspired by internet culture and the brands that have thrived in the digital space. With debut collaborations with the likes of Anti-Social Social Club, Brain Dead and Toronto-based graphic designer Avi Gold, the brand is building off the current logo-centric buzz prevalent in the industry.

Eventually Joffe unveiled CDG to the public as a graphic-focused brand the would fill the gap left behind by Good Design Shop. Speaking to Vogue, Joffe said that although "the collaboration between CDG and GDS came to an end, but sales have been amazing recently for the CDG part so we thought: why not simply carry on on our own? So, Good Design Shop became the new CDG brand."

The label's direction is clearly indicative of a shift towards a younger demographic in an effort to capitalize on Comme’s rare vertical integration, where customers can enter the brand’s universe with an internet-based brand, or one of the more affordable lines, before eventually graduating to Junya Watanabe MAN, CdG SHIRT, Homme, or Homme Plus.

The most instantly recognizable CdG brand, PLAY Comme des Garçons helped introduce the CdG aesthetic to retailers across the globe. Over the last decade, the brand has achieved mainstream acceptance due to simple designs and a beloved logo.

Launched in 2002, Play is “a collection created by not designing; it was the antithesis of design, based on prototypical forms,” says Joffe. An apt description, considering PLAY garments tend to be relatively consistent from one season to another: T-shirts, long sleeves, polos, cardigans, hoodies, Converse—basics, really. PLAY’s power and appeal though, lies in its simple logo, designed by Polish artist Filip Pagowski. Pagowski’s cartoon heart with oversized eyes is undoubtedly the first thing the comes to mind for many when they think of Comme des Garçons and has consistently appeared on PLAY pieces for over 15 years.

Affordable prices, simple designs and a recognizable logo that has appeared on countless celebrities makes PLAY Comme’s entry-level line extraordinaire, through which tens of thousands of customers have surely been introduced to Comme des Garçons at large.

If PLAY is the most mainstream Comme line, then BLACK Comme des Garçons is the most affordable. Launched in 2009—in the midst of the recession—BLACK was a temporary response to middling disposable income and focused on providing wardrobe staples at prices 60% lower than the rest of the Comme’s high-fashion offerings. Despite originally being a temporary response to harder economic times, BLACK has become a permanent player in the Comme universe thanks to the line’s popularity amongst the brand’s legions of fans.

BLACK CdG’s most noteworthy contribution—affordability notwithstanding—is an ongoing partnership with Nike on a series of minimal black sneakers. While other CdG lines have offered us VaporMaxes, Dunks and Air Max 180s, BLACK has made a habit of using some lesser known but ultimately timeless silhouettes like the Night Track and Blazer.

Wallet Comme des Garçons is one of the oldest lines in the Comme portfolio, initially introduced in the early 1980s. The line’s singular focus—wallets—has broadened a bit in recent years to include contemporary accessories like iPad cases. With its signature bright colors and polka dots creating playful leather goods, the line—like any strong accessories label—was for a long time the financial backbone of the CdG business.

Few brands—if any—within the Comme universe inspire the same cult-like fanaticism as Comme des Garçons parfums PARFUMS. Kawakubo’s approach to olfactory engineering is similar to her approach to clothing design: do what hasn’t been done. Since its inception in 1994, PARFUMS’ perfumes have included notes of burnt rubber, lettuce, dust, oxygen, soda and tar. But Kawakubo’s unorthodox approach to perfume has yielded some bonafide hits, including Amazigreen, Glitter, I Love You, Happy Pillow and Wonderwood.

Clearly the Comme des Garçons universe is complex and multi-layered. From men’s and women’s high-end artisanal clothing to unisex entry-level cotton T-shirts and perfumes to branded trinkets, there isn’t a product category that Comme doesn’t manage to hit. Naturally, there is a place where one can immerse themselves in said universe: Dover Street Market (DSM).

Created by Kawakubo and Joffe as an experiential retail outpost, DSM is a branded department store that features every Comme brand in one place, along with complimentary third-party brands. The first store opened its doors in 2004, on Dover Street in London’s Mayfair neighborhood. In 2006, Dover Street Market Ginza opened its doors in Tokyo, with a store in New York following suit in 2013. More recently, Dover Street’s presence has expanded to Singapore and Beijing—where the internet-based brand was announced—while the original London store has been relocated to Hayward Street near Piccadilly Circus. A Los-Angeles store is set to open later this year.

Today, Dover Street Market is considered one of the world’s preeminent fashion retailers, thanks in large part to its unparalleled selection of Comme brands. When paired with well-curated selections from the likes of Undercover, Thom Browne or Gucci and even a dedicated t-shirt space for streetwear brands like Fucking Awesome! and Bianca Chandon, Dover Street Market offers product across all taste categories and price ranges. Sure, you can find a selection of the Comme des Garçons lines at one of the company’s countless outposts but Dover Street Market is the only place where one gets an immersive look inside Kawakubo’s mind and the universe she created.