Fashion

This Designer Dressed Dogs In Comme Des Garcons Creations

by Amanda Richards

On May 1, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will honor Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons at the 2017 Met Gala, a fundraiser to go along with an annual exhibition at the Met's Costume Institute. Kawakubo's work with CdG is legendary, in part because the fashion she creates is more art than clothing. In fact, according to Racked, some pieces require literal training to wear.

Then again, these dogs make it look pretty easy.

Enter pet couturier Anthony Rubio, the man behind the iconic canine recreations of Kawakubo's designs. Rubio is a New York City native with over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry — his business is pet couture, creating the most elaborate and unique looks for the fashionable Fidos of the world. His work has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and more. Rubio wanted to pay homage to Kawakubo and CdG, and creating these signature pet looks was a natural fit.

"Rei Kawakubo is a visionary breaking all of the rules of conventional fashion and forcing one to question what is fashion and how it is or can be interpreted," Rubio writes in an email to Bustle. "Kawakubo forces us to stretch our imaginations by presenting shapes compositions that breaks all the molds of what we consider normal. It is not to everyone's taste or liking yet it is something deserving a closer look and investigation."

To honor CdG, Rubio used his dogs, Bogie and Kimba, as models, recreating three of Kakakubo's past looks.

The looks are, admittedly, stunning — and one can't help but think if dressing non-humans in human-inspired fashion is something Kawakubo herself would be in full support of.

"I decided to look into and try to understand the meaning of Avant Guard Fashion [sic] and the designer considered the queen of this art form," Rubio writes. "The more I investigated the more I learned that there are so many layers to understand and as a result I find myself traveling down the virtual rabbit hole wanting to explore further and eventually experiment or at the very least delve in this form of expression."

In other words, it's like the industry has always dictated: Have fur, but make it fashion.