Rei Kawakubo has never been a designer to shy away from politics and has often used her collections to comment on world issues. Her latest collection for Comme des Garçons Homme Plus was no exception. Titled To Hell with War, it would be hard not to see the collection as a comment on the tragic state of the world right now, between the war in Gaza and the recent reelection of Trump in the States.

Taking militaria as the theme, the collection saw the models wear huge domed helmets, some wrapped in fine fabrics, some decorated with flowers, as they marched down the runway in heavy leather boots. The boots were, as always, bizarre. The toe flipped up at a severe angle, displaying the sole. It was a good season for jackets, constructed in the military style with excessive buttoning and epaulettes. As the show progressed, these jackets became more deconstructed, eventually breaking all rules of symmetry and turning inside out and morphing with other garments. 

A bright, pixelated take on camouflage appeared on shirts that may not be much help in a warzone but brought a fantastic flash of colour through grey and navy coats. The back end of the show was where everything went suitably mad – huge billowing trousers were constructed entirely out of shirt pockets, denim jeans took the shape of exaggerated jodhpurs, and one coat (Look 34) looked as if it were ripped from the atelier only halfway done, one arm missing with the other being part of a different jacket.