🎙️ Michelle Elie
Michelle Elie is a fashion aficionado who has elevated the concept of a collector to dizzying new heights. The American-Haitian born jewelry designer and former fashion model literally walks the walk and talks the talk when it comes to her profound love of the work created by one of fashion’s most avant-garde designers, Rei Kawakubo.
Michelle Elie
For decades Michelle has not only collected, but regularly wears, some of the most envelope-pushing pieces Kawakubo has ever created for her Comme des Garçons brand. Not surprisingly she is an evergreen favorite of street style photographers outside the shows during Paris Fashion Week. While inside the show venues guests who are seated next to Michelle are often in for quite an experience as they try to co-exist with her often voluminous, three-dimensional Kawakubo designs.
Let me just say that the smart fashion PRs know to always seat Michelle at the end of a row.
However, for Michelle, wearing Comme des Garçons isn’t about attracting the attention of others, rather for her, wearing the clothing is a very personal statement. In particular, she connects on a fundamental level with the pieces that exaggerate or deform her body when she wears them. They speak to her own body image issues and have helped her to become more accepting of her own natural curves, a subject she struggled with during her years as a model.
Die-hard Comme des Garçons fans are in luck because Michelle has finally decided to fling open her closet doors. On April 3rd, the opening of the “Life doesn’t frighten me, Michelle Elie wears Comme des Garçons” exhibition will take place at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany. There 50 pieces from the over 70 Comme des Garçons garments Michelle has collected over the past twenty-five years will be on display for the fashion-loving world to enjoy up close.
And the always inventive Michelle is not letting the global quarantine stop her from sharing her exhibition. She will be doing a virtual tour of the exhibit so people around the globe can see it in all its digital glory. Thankfully the exhibition is open until August 30th, which should give fans of Michelle and Rei’s work plenty of time to make the trek to Germany.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Michelle during the most recent Paris Fashion Week and was enchanted by her story and also blown away by her pure dedication to fashion and her passion for Comme des Garçons.
