Rei Kawakubo Received a Major Design Award in London
EXPERIMENTAL BENT: Often described as a designer’s designer, Rei Kawakubo received a Lifetime Achievement Medal at the London Design Festival earlier this week, recognizing her “significant and fundamental contributions to the design industry.”
“One of the extraordinary things about Rei Kawakubo is how she uses her practice and the brand to allow her to experiment with anything that seems to interest her,” said Alice Rawsthorn, a design critic, author and member of the medal jury that selected the founder of Comme des Gar?ons for the honor. “Every aspect of her work reflects her own sensibility, and also our perceptions of her.“
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British architect Amanda Levete accepted the award on the famously shy Kawakubo’s behalf at a ceremony Monday night at Space House.
The festival described the Japanese fashion maverick as “one of the most influential garment designers of the 20th century, subverting shape and function, reframing ideas of beauty and proposing a new relationship between body and dress.”
It noted that as the focus of a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017, titled “Art of the In-Between,” she was only the second living designer to be honored as such since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.
Other jury members at this year’s festival included Ozwald Boateng, Es Devlin, Philip Holliday, Tristram Hunt, Yinka Ilori, Indy Johar, Jay Osgerby, Ben Parker, Rathna Ramanathan, Jemma Read, Raoul Shah, Wai Shin Li, Justine Simons and Jane Withers.
“This year’s winners are pioneers of creativity and innovation across a range of fields: from redefining beauty and fashion to advancing sustainable design and humanitarian solutions,” the festival said in a statement. “They are shaping new narratives, pushing boundaries and fostering a more inclusive, sustainable and forward-looking creative landscape.”
Makeup artist Pat McGrath was awarded The London Design Medal; biomaterial designer Natsai Audrey Chieza received The Design Innovation Medal, and Harry Blakiston Houston took home the Emerging Design Medal for his Insulate Ukraine project to replace bullet and bomb-damaged windows with insulated plastic coverings.
Ben Evans, director of the London Design Festival, said the 2024 winners “exemplify the remarkable diversity and ingenuity that define our creative industries today. Their work demonstrates the boundless potential of design to inspire change, challenge conventions, and shape our future.”
Last June, Kawakubo also received a Compasso d’Oro 2024 award, often referred to as the Oscars of the design world.
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