265 Comme des Garçons Pieces Head to London Auction as Collector Cashes In
An Australian vintage dealer is putting 265 pieces of Comme des Garçons — the Japanese label founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969 — up for auction in London on 15 September, turning a personal obsession built over a decade into capital for a expanding retail business.
Octavius La Rosa, a Melbourne-based collector who owns roughly 4,000 Comme des Garçons garments, is consigning the lot to Kerry Taylor Auctions, a London specialist house known for fashion sales. The 265 pieces span the label's earliest years: 18 lots date from the 1970s, the decade Kawakubo launched the brand in Tokyo, and several are from her first Paris runway shows in the early 1980s — the collections that introduced her asymmetric, deconstructed silhouettes to European buyers and press. (WWD)
The sale reads like a compressed retrospective of Kawakubo's career. A black polyurethane raincoat with knot details carries an estimate of GBP 500 to GBP 700. An austere wool trousersuit from the autumn 1982 "Pirates" collection is pegged at GBP 800 to GBP 1,200. A multitartan ensemble from spring 2006 and a piece from the autumn 2005 "Broken Bride" collection are also on the block. Looks from Junya Watanabe — the designer who trained under Kawakubo before launching his own line under the Comme des Garçons umbrella — are included as well. (WWD)
Kerry Taylor Auctions knows the market. Last June the same house set a world auction record for a single Comme des Garçons design when a major museum paid GBP 65,000 for a tattered sweater and skirt from the autumn 1982 "Holes" collection — one of Kawakubo's most radical statements, with garments that appeared torn and distressed straight off the runway. (WWD)
La Rosa's collecting story is its own thread. He started buying avant-garde fashion about fifteen years ago, sourcing most of his finds through online auctions and thrift shops across Japan. He has never met Kawakubo. In 2017, he was the first person in line when the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York mounted its Rei Kawakubo retrospective — a show only the second living designer ever received at that venue. (WWD; The Australian)
The auction is, in part, a business decision. La Rosa has run his Dot Comme store out of Melbourne for fifteen years and is preparing to move to a larger location in September. Last June he opened a permanent Paris outpost at 1 Rue de l'Abbaye, named dot COMME, stocking rare Comme des Garçons pieces from 1991 onward. He now plans a second Paris space aimed at fashion historians, designers and museums, with a rental service to follow. The sale proceeds will fund that expansion. (WWD; Another Magazine)
What makes the sale striking is the scale of the cull. La Rosa holds roughly 4,000 Comme des Garçons pieces; 265 is a serious parcel but a fraction of the archive. He is not exiting the field — he is pruning to grow a business that treats fashion history as inventory, lent to museums and sold to whoever will pay the estimate on the day.
