Humble fabrics have been a talking point this European season, many designers employing cotton and linen for grandiose silhouettes.

At the Comme des Garçons show on Saturday night, Rei Kawakubo went way, way further, whorling burlap and calico into wondrous puffball shapes, stacking them up like scoops of hard ice cream – and occasionally adding a cone-shaped hat.

Like her acolyte Junya Watanabe’s show earlier in the day, Kawakubo’s display gathered an emotional tug with her elevation of the everyday and humdrum into dignified, often breathtaking confections with a make-do-and-mend attitude.

Make that: Make-do-and-dazzle.

“I believe in the positiveness and the value that can be born from the damaging of perfect things,” Kawakubo said in a note distributed after the show, which she titl

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