COMME DES GARCONS X BEATLES

 
The collection, called The Beatles/Comme des Garçons label, will retail from around $115 for a T-shirt to about $860 for the most expensive handbag.  The line is slated for a November 20th launch in Tokyo at the Trading Museum, a new Comme store concept, in the Gyre building. On the November 27th Dover Street Market, Kawakubo’s multi-brand emporium in London, will be the location for the British launch, while 2010 will see an even wider distribution.



Comme des Garçons signed a three-year worldwide licensing deal with the London-based Apple Corps Ltd. - the company that manages the legacy and musical catalog of The Beatles - giving Kawakubo access to all of the British band's imagery, graphics and photos. The only restriction design-wise was that the Japanese designer not use any leather, given Sir Paul McCartney’s pro-vegetarianism animal rights stance.

The line, which as been generating a huge amount of interest, according to Adrian Joffe, chief executive officer of Comme des Garçons International, is expected to generate $5 million in sales by the end of its first year. While so far we only have one image to go off of, I'm surprised at how somewhat uninspired the photo of the bag released looks, given all of the images at Jawakubo's disposal. That said, I'm looking forward to see what else is in store for the collection.