Viola Podkopaeva Is 18th Century Punk In Miles Aldridge Photos For Numero #176 September 2016

Model Viola Podkopaeva is styled by Samuel Francois in royalty-ready fashion looks for “Rei Kawakubo, Reine De L’Avant-Garde”.  Miles Aldridge is behind the lens for Numéro #176, September 2016. Since its launch in 1969, Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons has occupied boundary-pushing, intellectual avante garde territory./ Hair by Tina Outen; makeup by Lucy Bridge

In her own words, Kawakubo said about her Fall 2016 collection that she was "imagining punks in the 18th century, which was a time of so many revolutions. Writing for Vogue.com, Sarah Mower concluded:

As Kawakubo well knows, the revolutionaries are already at the gates of Paris—because she supports them in herDover Street Market stores, and sets the example of being the independent godmother of them all. If you can call young designers like Vetements, Gosha Rubchinskiy, and Simon Porte Jacquemus “punks,” it all fits beautifully under the massive wings of those loopy Comme des Garçons dresses.

Update: Rei Kawakubo will be the focus of a solo exhibition next spring at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This will be only the second time in the history of the institution that a living fashion designer is honored. The last one was a vast retrospective dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent. Editor Diana Vreeland curated the exhibit in 1983.