Back in 1988, Rei Kawakubo and the Comme des Garçons brand printed a biannual, SIX, to reference the sixth sense. When the New York Times asked about the unstapled A3 magazine, Kawakubo explained, “High fashion has to have a mystery about it.  This is the next step: visual representation of the collection, purely for image.” 

 At the time, the concept of solely presenting artwork, illustrations, and photographs sans annotation was atypical and fresh, but soon became industry standard for independent and conglomerate fashion publications alike. Thanks to modern technologies, Kawakubo and the Comme des Garçons brand have released the free “Moving SIX” app exclusively for the iPad, which showcases the best images from SIX’s archive.

 Discontinued in 1991, now a new generation can experience SIX’s unique point of view.  Never devoutly nostalgic, Kawakubo presents SIX’s aesthetics interactively and in multi-media format: music accompanies images scrolling by cinematically, layered images can be peeled away revealing uncompromised parallax views of the underlying, and juxtapositions of disparate images tantalize modern re-interpretations.  “Moving SIX” is groundbreaking, like the original printed SIX, but the paucity and aura of the originals still tempt fashion mag bibliophiles to spend hundreds to obtain a single issue.  “Moving SIX” reminds us how refreshing and informative it is to revisit fashion’s past with contemporaneously influenced hindsight and the ease of 21st century technology.  The Comme des Garçons brand has always been prescient; lets hope others follow suit and become “like the boys.”

by Michael Costa