Met Gala and exhibition 2017 to feature Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Friday that the theme for its 2017 Costume Institute exhibition and gala will be "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons," reports Vogue Magazine.

The upcoming show will be the first to make a living designer the sole subject of the Met's famous fashion exhibit since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.

Due to open on May 4, 2017, the exhibit will feature around 120 Comme des Garçons womenswear designs by Kawakubo, dating back to the label's first runway collection in 1981 and up to the most recent shows.

The show will also look at Kawakubo's fascination with "in-betweenness" and focus in on contrasting themes, such as East/West, male/female and past/present.

"Rei Kawakubo is one of the most important and influential designers of the past forty years," said the Costume Institute's curator in charge, Andrew Bolton.

"By inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation, and hybridity, she has defined the aesthetics of our time."

Ahead of the exhibition opening, the Met's Costume Institute Benefit will take place on May 1, the first Monday of the month.