There is nothing quite like Cosmic Wonder. Since its inception in 1994, the Osaka-based fashion label has gone from being a cult name that only a few aficionados could identify to a sell-out collection at Ray Beams, the most directional of the Beams clothing stores in Tokyo. The company's clothes even received the ultimate celebrity stamp of approval last year when Madonna wore Cosmic Wonder jeans in the video for "American Pie."
Like predecessors Comme des Garcons and Issey Miyake, Cosmic Wonder's creations are more than just clothes: They are art objects that can sit comfortably in both gallery and wardrobe. Cosmic Wonder designer Yukinori Maeda says that his goal is to create clothes with "meaning, words and emotional weight" that "sway in the space between art and the attire of daily life." Each collection is based on a quirky poem or offbeat story and is presented as a book or video with photo cards, shot in a frank, journalistic style, reminiscent of popular fashion photographer Terry Richardson. It is interesting to see how each collection's odd little fairy tale is captured in Maeda's designs.
"Trying to seriously transform [the stories] into garments is a hodgepodge process in which we find great beauty," explains Maeda. "We are like an eccentric who thinks the sillier, the more ludicrous something is, the more human and liberating it is also."