The limited edition NikeLab Dunk Hi x COMME des GARÇONS will be available tomorrow, February 8th exclusively at COMME des GARÇONS New York.
Heralded designer Rei Kawakubo spun a bizarre tale for show attendees to decipher at her Spring ‘17 COMME des GARÇONS Homme Plus show last June in Paris, which serves as the inspiration behind this Dunk Hi collab.
A humorous nod to Hans Christian Andersen’s account of an emperor’s vain misfortune — that he was tricked into buying and wearing “invisible clothing,” thus exposing himself — the collection interprets the story’s underlying contradiction of invisibility as transparency.
Also explained as a take on today’s culture of information overload and over-sharing, the show provided the debut of “invisible shoes” created with Nike, the NikeLab Dunk Hi x COMME des GARÇONS. (The clear-soled NikeLab Air VaporMax x COMME des GARÇONS debuted in similar fashion at the Spring ’17 show last October.)
The Dunk retains its leather overlay, in black, over a clear vamp, quarter, tongue and collar, revealing foam underneath the tongue and collar, in addition to the wearer’s sock choice. Holes on the medial quarter and vamp provide ventilation.