Comme des Garçons Ruffle Skirt

A raw hem is a decision, not an omission. Every other hem in tailoring exists to hide the place where the cloth stops: it is turned under, pressed, and stitched down so that the edge is a finish rather than a fact. Leaving the edge raw refuses all of that and lets you see what the skirt is actually made of, which is a cut piece of wool. On a ruffled garment that refusal compounds, because a ruffle is nothing but edge. Every tier gives you another line of unturned cloth, and the skirt ends up defined by the number of edges it is willing to show you rather than by a silhouette. Wool is the right fiber to do it in. It has body, it holds the fullness of a gather instead of collapsing under it, and it takes a cut edge with a density that a lighter cloth would not. Then there are the pockets, which are the detail that tells you the garment is meant to be lived in rather than photographed: a skirt this constructed had no obligation to be practical, and it is anyway.

A ruffled skirt is usually a garment you own for one kind of evening. This one is wool, it has pockets, and the edges are honest about themselves, so it is a garment you own for a Tuesday.

The collections that first made Comme des Garçons' name in Paris were black and deliberately unfinished, and a raw-hemmed wool skirt is that argument still being made, in a form the house has had four decades to refine.

One hundred percent wool. Made in Japan. Ruffled construction with raw hems, and pockets. Color: black.

The ruffles carry the volume, so the skirt is wide at the hem and does not need width anywhere else. Wool holds a gather and will not go limp across a day, which is the practical difference between this and a lighter ruffled skirt. A raw wool edge will shed a little at first and then settle, and that is the finish behaving normally rather than the skirt coming apart.

With the Cutout Sweater, wool against wool, which is the version we would argue for. With the Tank Top when the skirt should be the only structured thing. Flat shoes: the hem is doing enough.

Wool wants as little washing as possible and as much airing as you can give it, and a ruffled wool skirt with raw edges should not go into a machine at any temperature, because agitation is what turns a raw wool edge into a felted one. Have it cleaned, brush it, and hang it with room around the tiers. Our care guidance covers wool in more detail.

The Ruffle Top works the same idea on a shirt, in white. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.