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35 Paolo Roversi: "Birds" "My collaboration with Rei Kawakubo goes back a long time," Paolo Roversi says of his nearly four-decade collaboration with the designer for the fashion house Comme des Garçons. "Each time working with her is a new inspiring adventure." Roversi, one of the most in-demand photographers in the world of fashion, is known for portraits and fashion photography that manage to be dreamy, lyrical, and incredibly modern. The curator of the Roversi exhibition is Dennis Freedman, long the creative director of W magazine and, later, of Barneys New York. Freedman, now an independent curator based in New York, has worked closely with Roversi since the early '90s. "I have always thought that Paolo's work is extraordinary," Freedman says. "In the end, we decided that it would be most effective if [the work] was limited to one aspect. It was Paolo's idea to concentrate on the photographs he has taken of Comme des Garçons. It was a very wise decision — a solid concentration of his work." There is a dizzying variety of images in the show. "There are many approaches that Paolo took to his work here, each based on a particular collection," Freedman says. "So, there are groupings of different approaches: black and white, muted colors, intense reds — all very illustrative of the range of Paolo's career." Freedman hopes to present the photos in a dramatic setting that reflects the radical aesthetic of Kawakubo, whose designs — jarring lumps and strange, startling silhouettes — were the subject of a 2017 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's the combination of the two creators, photographer and designer, that makes the exhibition so compelling. "Compared with almost any other body of work from the fashion world, Comme des Garçons is certainly one of the greatest and the most poetic," Freedman says. "Putting one of the most poetic of designers with one of the most poetic of photographers is a terrific way for the public to see two great artists and how they respond to one another. I think that is at the heart of why this exhibition is so interesting. It's a gem of a show." William Middleton is a fashion journalist and former Texan based in Paris. He is the author of Double Vision, the biography of Dominique and John de Menil, and is currently writing a biography of Karl Lagerfeld. "PUTTING ONE OF THE MOST POETIC OF DESIGNERS WITH ONE OF THE MOST POETIC OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IS A TERRIFIC WAY FOR THE PUBLIC TO SEE TO SEE TWO GREAT ARTISTS AND HOW THEY RESPOND TO ONE ANOTHER." — Dennis Freedman Top: Paolo Roversi's Anni, Paris, 2011, from "Paolo Roversi: Birds" at Dallas Contemporary Bottom: Westwood, center, leads a climate protest outside her Spring-Summer 2016 Red Label show in London. TOP: © PAOLO ROVERSI, COURTESY DALLAS CONTEMPORARY BOTTOM: KI PRICE