For Rei Kawakubo, CDG Homme Plus’ FW 2025 Collection Is Her Form of Protest
With the blunt defiance of her title, “To Hell With War,” Rei’s F/W 2025 collection reminded us that fashion can be both a form of protest and a call to something better

A message written in fabric
When Rei Kawakubo took her bow at the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus show on Friday night, she didn’t need to say much. In fact, her words were few, but they were impossibly powerful.
“To Hell With War,” she titled the show—a declaration that echoed through the dimly lit room with the weight of an entire era’s worth of global turmoil.
An unflinching condemnation of the chaos that had once again taken hold of the world’s stage. And true to Rei’s form, she delivered this statement not through angry rhetoric, but through the layered language of fashion itself.
The mood of the show—enhanced by a Nina Simone soundtrack and dim lighting—was one of melancholy, but also of hope. It was as if Rei was urging us to reflect, to sit in the discomfort of the present moment, but not to despair.
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Her collection was full of contrasts: tailcoats meticulously cut with Savile Row precision, but infused with off-kilter elements that hinted at rebellion. Pants swayed in oversized folds, their cargo pockets drooping like forgotten burdens.
Everything in the show felt like a push against the status quo, a deconstruction of both formal military dress and traditional notions of what high fashion should be.
Fashion as protest, fashion as hope
What Rei achieved with this collection was not merely to send a message, but to offer a way forward. In a world rife with instability, she reminded us that fashion has the power to shape not just the way we look, but the way we think and feel.
“To hell with war” is a challenge; a demand that we confront the violence around us and reimagine a world where art, beauty, and peace take precedence over destruction.
This collection will be remembered for its audacity in the face of a world that desperately needs new ways to heal.
Courtesy Comme des Garçons Homme Plus