On a gray spring morning in Paris, behind the
facade of an 18th century building on the Place Vendome, a flying insect has
somehow made its way through an arched doorway, past a limestone courtyard and
into the headquarters of Comme des Garcons International, where it is now
buzzing around the head of Chief Executive Officer Adrian Joffe.
Not for long.
As Joffe sits at a glass table in his office,
calmly discussing the relationship between artistic integrity and profit, he
suddenly raises his right arm and executes a rapid swatting motion reminiscent
of an Andy Roddick first serve. In a split second, the fly is gone and Joffe
continues speaking, making no acknowledgment of the interruption aside from a
barely perceptible grin.
To those who aren’t familiar with Joffe -- a
seemingly mild-mannered executive with a background in Zen Buddhism and
linguistics -- this matter-of-fact extermination of another living being might
seem surprising. But as Bloomberg Pursuits magazine reports in its Autumn 2014
issue, those who know him well would recognize one of his most-marked
qualities: not a killer instinct exactly but, rather, a clean efficiency, a
knack for swiftly removing distractions so as to focus on what’s important.
Innovative
Brand
Comme des Garcons, founded in Tokyo 45 years ago
by the reclusive designer Rei Kawakubo -- Joffe’s wife since 1992 -- is perhaps
the most enduringly innovative fashion
brand of modern times. From the start, Kawakubo’s goal has been to rise above
market forces to freely create new things, be they jackets with three sleeves
or androgynous, abstract garments that upend standard notions of clothing, gender and beauty.
Despite its renegade bona fides, Comme, as its
devotees call it, is also a business, and it’s up to Joffe to help keep it
profitable. At a time when the art-commerce balancing act is a daunting
challenge for many creative companies, Joffe, who has no formal training in
either art or commerce, has become an unlikely master of juggling both. His
ideas often seem uncopyable -- until they’re widely copied. Such was the case
with Comme’s guerrilla stores, one-off, limited-run boutiques that served as
the prototypes for today’s ubiquitous pop-up shops.
Creativity
Pharrell Williams -- whose new unisex scent with
Comme puts him in an esteemed club of fragrance collaborators that includes the
design firm Artek and London’s Serpentine Gallery -- says that creativity
remains Joffe’s top priority, with commerce running a very close second.
“Money doesn’t make ideas; ideas make money,”
Williams observes. He describes Comme des Garcons as a kind of brilliant
biosphere, with Joffe as the curator who gives Kawakubo’s creations their
essential context. “If Comme is like a snow globe, Adrian is the water,”
Williams says.
Joffe certainly doesn’t fit the standard profile
of a 61-year-old CEO -- and not just because he dresses in head-to-toe black,
often with a pair of graffitied Doc Martens on his feet. The shoes are a
limited-edition Comme collaboration adorned with slogans by his wife, including,
significantly, “My energy comes from my freedom.”
One of Joffe’s many tasks at the company is to
act as interpreter and gatekeeper for the resolutely private Kawakubo, who
speaks little English and shows no interest in making herself understood to the
outside world.
“That’s the worst part of my job,” Joffe says.
“It’s hard to explain her, and I don’t really want to. But I am somewhat of a
realist, and for business, you have to try.” Continue
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