首先，我們先來談談 Comme des Garçons 這個品牌名稱。有別於其他多數設計師以自己的名字來為品牌命名（如：Rick Owens、Raf Simons），川久保玲無意於推廣自己，而是更傾向採用一個能代表整個群體的名稱。
此外，她也喜歡 Comme des Garçons 唸起來的聲調（法文唸法）。另外，「像男孩一樣」（Comme des Garçons的直譯）也意味著她的服裝像男裝般色調柔和，不同於多數女裝的豔麗張揚。
I chose Comme des Garçons as a name because I liked the sound. It doesn’t mean much to me, I didn’t intend to promote myself, that’s why I didn’t put my name on it.
川久保玲
I don’t think of myself as a designer. It was a business, a group of people working together. I wanted a name that would represent the whole group.
川久保玲
It was for esthetic reasons that [I] gave [my] business… a French name—to signify that the colors would be muted, as in men’s clothes, not flamboyant, as many women’s fashions are, and because [I] liked the lilt of the French.
川久保玲
從零開始創作
除了品牌的命名有別於一般的設計師以外，川久保玲的創作手法也與其他設計師大相徑庭。
在我過去的文章和影片中，曾介紹過許多品牌和設計師，他們大多是從過往的文化汲取靈感，並將其轉化為自身獨有的創意美學。例如熱衷於雷鬼和爵士樂的 Nicholas Daley、熱愛龐克和電影的高橋盾，又或是鍾情於亞洲男性之男子氣概的 Lựu Đạn 等等，都是如此。
Three years ago I became dissatisfied with what I was doing. I felt I should be doing something more directional, more powerful. In fashion we had to get away from the influence of what had been done in the 1920s or the 1930s. We had to get away from the folkloric. I decided to start from zero, from nothing, to do things that have not been done before, things with a strong image.
川久保玲
I create my own tradition… I’m not inspired directly by other people or even by places. I try to detach myself from the outside world and work within my own vision. Everything is very internalized.
川久保玲
When you look for something new, your experience may keep you from finding it. Looking for the new means you have to throw something away.
川久保玲
I begin every collection, every aspect of design for Comme des Garçons, from zero. I want to try to make something strong that didn’t exist before. By the very nature of how I work, I cannot be in any dialogue with the fashion industry or the public, or let myself be influenced in any way, by anyone or anything.
川久保玲
I try to make clothes that are new, that didn’t exist before, and hope that people get energy and feel positive when they wear them.
I don’t like the word feminist. I don’t like the word ambitious. I do like the word anti-establishment.
川久保玲
I create clothes for people with a positive outlook, for those who wish to live freely, outside of conventions. It is hard for everybody to understand my clothes and that’s all right with me.
The fact that my clothes shock is genuinely never my intention. I do in fact want to rebel against established ideas. I want to work in an inspiring way and stimulate others.
川久保玲
I might design something that might not function as clothes. What’s more important is the spirit. If the clothes give the confidence and beauty, that is far more important.
I do not feel happy when a collection is understood too well. For me, White Drama was too easily understood, the concept too clear.
川久保玲
Is it strong or not? That’s the only question. I need to create something new, something unlike anything seen before, if a lot of people praise what I made, it must have been just ordinary.
川久保玲
If I do something I think is new, it will be misunderstood, but if people like it, I will be disappointed because I haven’t pushed them enough. The more people hate it, maybe the newer it is. Because the fundamental human problem is that people are afraid of change.
For more than forty years that I have been making clothes, I have never thought about fashion. In other words, I have almost no interest in it. What I’ve only ever been interested in is clothes that one has never seen before, that are completely new, and how and in what way they can be expressed. Is that called fashion? I don’t know the answer.
最後，他順利進入該校的工業設計系，而在這開放自由的環境下，他也意識到，不管他想要學習藝術還是時尚，這全都是有可能的。另外，當時也正好是比利時設計師開始大放異彩的時期，他注意到 Walter Van Beirendonck 不只會做服裝，更會做面具和傢俱等道具，所以雖然沒有時尚背景，但他還是鼓起勇氣寫信給他，向他毛遂自薦。
後來，他也真的因為工業設計的專業，而獲得在品牌實習的機會，而 Walter 本人更帶他去巴黎，看 Margiela 的 1990 年春夏時裝秀。
我的意思是，在我之前 John (Galliano) 就是個很明顯的例子，因為他賣掉了大部分的股份，所以他失去了自己的品牌（被開除），我絕對不會忘記這件事，我心想“Don’t touch my Raf.”
Raf Simons
I want to stay young in the way of thinking. I don’t want to give in with the brands. So many brands gave in. They could start out so interesting, then at the end, commercialized and it becomes a very flat kind of business. They seem to be totally at ease and comfortable with it.
For my brand, I just want to keep on having that typical emotion that I am constantly seeking for. And that means that you sometimes have to give things which they won’t like or won’t be ready for it. But at least it will create a dialogue because it’s going to make them think about what it eventually could be.
All my life is working against the cliché of beauty, and the necessity and obligation of being sexy, of being beautiful. And I have nothing against being beautiful and sexy but I like when it is a choice.
值得一提的是，其實 Ralph Lauren 的本名並不叫 Ralph Lauren，而是 Ralph Lifshitz，但因為這個姓聽起來和不雅字眼十分接近，導致他和他的哥哥都會被同學嘲笑，所以 16 歲時，他就和其中一個哥哥，一起把姓氏改成 Lauren，取自於同樣來自 Bronx，也同樣為猶太移民的影星 Lauren Bacall。
然而現實層面是，他有女兒要照顧，而且也確實對目前的工作感到失望，因為對他來說，他現在在做的就只是無聊的苦差事而已，根本不是設計。所以陷入兩難的他，決定尋求父母的意見。他原本預期務實的父親，會要他和 Barry 一起做超市的生意，而母親則會支持他的時尚夢，但出乎意料的是，他的母親什麼也沒說，因為在她開口前，他的父親就已經要他堅持自己的夢想了。
而 Barry 對此的回應是，打開超市的收銀機，拿出現金，遞給他一萬美元（後來又追加兩萬五），要他好好追尋自己的時尚夢。不過 Calvin 認為自己沒有理由拿這筆錢，所以在堅決表示他們現在是事業夥伴後，才用這些錢做了以大衣為主的幾套服裝，並於 1968 年在紐約的 York Hotel 租了一間套房，以供展示與販售。
同年 4 月 4 號，馬丁・路德・金恩在孟菲斯遭人射殺身亡，這也導致全美各地出現暴動，而 Barry 的店也因此遭到破壞，所以他索性把店全關了，正式加入 Calvin，成為他的合作夥伴。
品牌的崛起與成就
後來十分幸運的是，當時知名百貨 Bonwit Teller 的產品經理 Donald O’Brien，因為在飯店搭電梯時搞錯樓層，所以就來到了 Calvin 的展場。他覺得他簡潔的設計相當不錯，於是就請他們的採購來看，之後更安排他與公司的總裁見面。
此外，就連 1985 年的經典電影《回到未來》（Back to the Future），也能見到這樣的橋段。
90 年代時，Calvin 對主流審美那種前凸後翹的身材感到厭倦，所以就找了身材纖細的 Kate Moss 擔任 model 拍攝 Obsession 香水廣告，並請她當時的男友 Mario Sorrenti 掌鏡，他將兩人送到小島獨自拍攝，而這些真情流露的親密照片，也成功把「將個人私事變成廣告」的概念，提升到新的層次。
除了 Kate Moss 以外，品牌也找來當時還叫做 Marky Mark 的 Mark Wahlberg 共同拍攝內褲廣告，他穿著一種介於三角褲（briefs）和四角褲（boxer shorts）之間的褲子（boxer briefs），並順利讓這種款式大受歡迎。
1994 年，品牌推出 CK One 香水，成為最早推出中性香水的先驅之一，而他的廣告也與其他品牌不同，他將各式各樣的人們聚集在一起，以表達香水無關乎年齡、性別和種族的概念。
There is a lot of competition, there is a lot of talent out there. I think maybe the most important thing is finding your own identity, and even though people say you should be doing this or that. No, do what you believe. Even when you are not confident, believe that you know better than what people are telling you to do. I think that is really important.
來自東京的宮下貴裕，從小就對服裝十分著迷，大約從小學四年級開始，就會自己去買喜歡的衣服，另外他也不背小學生專用的書包，而改用運動背包上下學。後來他受到穿著 DC 等美國服飾的哥哥的影響，所以也買了 Levi’s 501，一腳踏入服裝的世界。而除了服裝以外，他也很喜歡音樂、電影和繪畫等，和服裝相關的事物。
2009 年他離開 Number (N)ine，因為雖然品牌擁有一票死忠粉絲，且一年就賺了將近 2,200 萬美元，但他並不快樂。他表示，Number (N)ine 是一個樂團，也是一家大公司，而這讓他無法隨心所欲的做自己想做的事，所以他想要成為完全獨立的設計師，成為獨唱歌手，就像 John Lennon 離開披頭四以成為 John Lennon 一樣。
I still believe that music can change culture. I just made a song called ‘Dark Shadow.’ The lyrics say, ‘Please, please, please kill me.’ All my work, whether it’s in fashion or music, is about rebellion and not being conventional.
註 1： 網路上有許多資料（不論中英日文）都顯示品牌名稱取自於披頭四的《Revolution 9》，但我似乎找不到宮下如此親口證實。在與《EYESCREAM》訪談中，主持人問道：「Number (N)ine 是個非常好記的名字，它的靈感是來自於披頭四的《Revolution 9》嗎？」宮下回答：「它是 John Lennon 的幸運數字，而且聽起來也很讚。此外，它也是最後一個個位數字，我不想要雙位數，這也和我在生命中感到自在的位置重疊，個位數中的最後一個數字。」
最後若要用一句話來總結品牌成功的秘訣，雖然聽起來很簡單也很老套，但就是四個字：堅持自我（stay true to yourself）。他曾多次在訪談中提到堅持自我的重要性：
The most important thing is to really be true to yourself. I think sometimes young designers want to please too many people, or they want to do what is out there now, as opposed to trying to create something on their own. But if you’re going to do something that’s going to make a difference or be important enough to be around for a long time, you really have to stay true to what you set out to do.
Intolerance is something that I lived with for all of my youth and I really resented that. I resented a conservative intolerance judging me so I retaliated. My career has been one long act of revenge. Being able to spread that revenge and that spirit out, that’s too enticing and I can’t resist.
