Lines & Brand Knowledge
Comme des Garçons Lines Explained: Homme, Play, Junya Watanabe, and the Rest
Which Comme des Garçons label is which, who designs it, and how to read the date code on the tag
akko
September 9, 2026
📖 11分で読める
👁️ 31回閲覧
Comme des Garçons is a company as well as a label. Rei Kawakubo started it in Tokyo in 1969 and incorporated it in 1973; it showed in Paris for the first time in 1981. The group now includes lines designed by Kawakubo, house teams, and designers with their own studios inside the company. Junya Watanabe, Kei Ninomiya, Tao Kurihara, and Fumito Ganryu have each led distinct labels rather than cheaper versions of Kawakubo's mainline.
This guide covers what each line is, when it started, who designs it, and how it appears on a garment label. Prices below are observations recorded in Wardatrobe rather than a complete global retail-price list.
The mainline
The unqualified Comme des Garçons label is Kawakubo's principal runway collection. Its Paris debut in 1981 established the conceptual womenswear for which the house became known, while the company had already added its first named menswear line, Comme des Garçons Homme, in 1978. Country of manufacture varies by garment and season, so the care label is the correct source for where an individual piece was made.
Junya Watanabe and Noir Kei Ninomiya are not Kawakubo's diffusion lines
Junya Watanabe's official chronology records that he joined Comme des Garçons in 1984 after graduating from Bunka Fashion College and began as a patternmaker. He became chief designer of Tricot Comme des Garçons in 1987, established his own collection in 1992, and added Junya Watanabe MAN in 2002. MAN PINK followed in 2003 and eYe Junya Watanabe MAN in 2005. These remain Watanabe-led labels operating within the Comme des Garçons group.
The labels are easiest to distinguish by their printed names and product codes. Junya Watanabe MAN is the core menswear line; eYe is a separate sub-line frequently used for workwear and sportswear collaborations. A seller may shorten either name to "Junya," so check the tag before assigning a catalog brand.
Noir Kei Ninomiya is designed by Kei Ninomiya and launched for Spring/Summer 2013, as reported by Fashion Headline Japan. It remains an active runway line known for constructing volume through repeated modules, harnesses, laser cutting, and other joining systems. The name should not be confused with Comme des Garçons Noir, Kawakubo's historical black-focused label, which ran from 1987 through Autumn/Winter 1995 and returned from Autumn/Winter 2005 through Spring/Summer 2009.
The Homme family: four lines, not one
"Homme," "Homme Plus," "Homme Deux," and "Homme Homme" are four separate lines with their own histories. The added word changes the label; it does not indicate a size or numbered tier.
| Line | Started | Notes | Articles cataloged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comme des Garçons Homme | 1978 | The original menswear line. Keiichi Tanaka led it from 1990 through Autumn/Winter 2003; from 2004 it has been credited to Kawakubo and Watanabe's design team. | 100 articles |
| Comme des Garçons Homme Plus | 1984; first SS collection identified as SS1985 | Kawakubo's experimental menswear runway line. Homme Plus Ever Green ran as a sub-line from 2005 to 2009. | 87 articles |
| Comme des Garçons Homme Deux | 1987 | An active formal menswear line. The company does not publish a separate individual designer credit. | 0 indexed articles |
| Comme des Garçons Homme Homme | Spring/Summer 1999–Autumn/Winter 2001 | A short-lived historical menswear line associated with Keiichi Tanaka. | 0 indexed articles |
Homme Deux remains active, while Homme Homme is historical. Their zero counts describe Wardatrobe's current catalog coverage.
Comme Comme and robe de chambre
Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons, often shortened to Comme Comme, began in 1993 as a Kawakubo-designed womenswear line centered on everyday interpretations of the house vocabulary. The earlier robe de chambre Comme des Garçons ran from around 1981 through 2004 and was integrated into Comme Comme in 2005. They share a lineage, but the full tag name still matters when dating an older garment.
Comme des Garçons Shirt
Comme des Garçons Shirt is its own line rather than a shirting capsule of the mainline. It frequently carries Comme des Garçons collaborations, including KAWS, Yue Minjun, and ASICS, and its prices in our catalog run well below mainline runway pieces.
PLAY and PLAY x Converse
PLAY Comme des Garçons—introduced in 2003 in the company's chronology—is the casual line built around T-shirts, knitwear, and simple wardrobe pieces. Polish artist Filip Pagowski created its heart-with-eyes logo. The first public PLAY x Converse release followed in 2009, placing the emblem on Chuck Taylor footwear.
Black Comme des Garçons
BLACK Comme des Garçons launched as a lower-priced line around the 2008 financial crisis, with its first tagged collection in Spring/Summer 2009. It sits below mainline pricing and centers its palette on black, often offset with white graphics or contrasting details.
Comme des Garçons Wallets and Girl
Comme des Garçons Wallets covers the house's small leather goods — wallets, card cases, zip pouches — and has existed since at least the 1980s.
Comme des Garçons Girl launched for Spring/Summer 2015 as a Kawakubo-designed womenswear line. Its bows, frills, gingham, and compact silhouettes make the line visually distinct, while the full label name separates it from the mainline.
tao, GANRYU, CDG, and other related lines
tao has two connected chapters. Tao Kurihara launched the original tao label under Comme des Garçons in 2005 and ended it after Spring/Summer 2011. For Spring/Summer 2022, Tricot Comme des Garçons was renamed tao with Kurihara at the helm. The tag system reflects that history: the original 2005–11 tao used line code 3, while the renamed Tricot line uses T.
GANRYU was designed by Fumito Ganryu, a Bunka Fashion Business School graduate and former Junya Watanabe patternmaker. It debuted for Spring/Summer 2008 and ended after Spring/Summer 2017. Ganryu then established the independent FUMITO GANRYU label, which debuted at Pitti Uomo in 2018.
CDG is a logo-driven label announced in spring 2018 and released through dedicated stores on July 20 that year, according to Senken Shimbun's launch report. It grew from Good Design Shop Comme des Garçons, the retail project developed with D&Department that began in 2011. CDG uses recurring essentials and collaboration capsules rather than the mainline runway format.
The wider company list also includes Comme des Garçons Parfums, The Beatles Comme des Garçons, Comme des Garçons Pocket, Junya Watanabe MAN PINK, CDG SHIRT GIRL, Black Market Comme des Garçons, and Speedo Comme des Garçons. Some are current brands, some are retail formats or capsules, and some are historical; their full printed names should be preserved in catalog records.
How to date a piece: the AD code and line letter
For the full method — the A–T season cycle, both cycles side by side, and the lines the system does not cover — see our Comme des Garçons tag dating guide. In short:
Comme des Garçons tags commonly carry a line identifier and an AD code. Collectors generally read AD as the production or management year, which can precede the retail season. Comme des Garçons has not published a complete public specification, so the mappings below are community reconstructions checked against dated garments and Japanese archive references.
Before 1988, precise season dating usually requires matching the garment to catalogs or runway archives. From 1988 through 2000, many tags use a season digit in which 0 points to Autumn/Winter and 1 to the following Spring/Summer, although special lines can differ. The 2001–03 period is transitional and can assign two letters to one season; 2004–07 runs through M–T; the clean ten-year A–T cycle begins with Spring/Summer 2008.
These line identifiers recur across Japanese dating references and dated garments in Wardatrobe:
| Letter | Line |
|---|---|
| G | Comme des Garçons (mainline) |
| H | Comme des Garçons Homme |
| P | Comme des Garçons Homme Plus |
| D | Comme des Garçons Homme Deux |
| J | Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons |
| W | Junya Watanabe Man / eYe Junya Watanabe Man |
| A | PLAY Comme des Garçons |
| 1 | BLACK Comme des Garçons |
| B | Comme des Garçons Parfums |
Older Comme des Garçons SHIRT labels often follow a separate S##### or W##### seasonal format rather than a standard one-letter line code. The current F-... format begins around Spring/Summer 2021. Wallet references use O, V, or 8 depending on period and product type. When the code does not fit the common table, use the complete tag, country label, and a dated visual archive together instead of forcing one letter into a universal system.
Add Your Pieces to Wardatrobe
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