By Alyssa Rosenberg W has a look at the new Comme des Garçons line for H&M, and while the commenters on New York's Cut blog don't so much love what they're seeing, I think everything with polka dots in the center, and the blue jacket are adorable. But more than that, I am psyched that Rei Kawakubo ($, sorry) is going to make her way into a lot of American wardrobes. I'm not the most fashionable woman in the universe. Most of my clothes come from Gap and Banana Republic sale racks. But I find Comme des Garçons clothes incredibly beautiful, and I think the way Kawakubo talks about her designs is compelling: "I only came to Paris with the intention of showing what I thought was strong and beautiful. It just so happened that my notion was different from everybody else's," she has said of her first, highly controversial, Paris show. When I went to Japan earlier this year, I found myself at the label's flagship store in Aoyama, fronted by a polka-dotted glass wave and staffed by some of the nicest saleswomen I've ever met, dressed, true to the Comme aesthetic, in priestess-like layers of skirts and jackets. One of them helped me slip on a white linen jacket with a bird's-tail back. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever put on, and I bought it, even though it took me three months to pay for it.
