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Do cats wear Comme des Garçons? It sounds incredible, but it’s true! And they do it with all their inherent grace in the collage world of CAT WEARING CDG.

This project run by the creative duo: A and L. Although they prefer to remain anonymous, the guys lifted the veil of mystery and told us a little about themselves. “A” is currently based in Asia where she runs a knitwear production company. “L” is an artist based in the UK, where he helps “A” with branding and graphic design elements. And their shared love of fashion and cats led them to create Cats Wearing CDG.

You came up with a great idea to combine cats and fashion, something that everyone loves. What inspired you to make collages? What was the trigger?

Thank you! Collage came to us naturally as it was a medium we both always loved to experiment with since we were young. The freedom it gives you to create realistic but surreal visuals is what we love about it. Also working with our hands is very rewarding to us. We love the analog aspect of it, but the digital techniques give it the unique finalized look.

Can you share why you dress your cats only in the CDG brand?

Basically, we are both obsessed with Comme des Garçons and we’ve long had the idea to open an archive store where we could curate and archive cult pieces from past collections. The archive store didn’t end up working due to time management and logistics, but we still wanted to somehow showcase pieces we loved, and that is how we created this idea to use pieces we would imagine archiving in our store.

Have you received feedback from CDG? They must be flattered by such brand love.

Nope we haven’t received direct feedback from the brand, but we noticed we’ve been on their radar as some really cool individuals from their team have followed us on our account. It’s very flattering! We appreciate it.

Are you open to do collaborations with other brands?

We will keep @cats_wearing_cdg as a tribute solely to Comme des Garçons, but we have another account called @cats_wearing which we will begin at some point this year. We will be styling our meowdels in cool emerging brands like @sun_woo_official and @dheygere as well as established brands like Vivienne Westwood, Celine, Balenciaga…etc!

I know that cats have a special place in Japanese culture. Everyone, I think, knows the «Maneki-neko» cat figurines that bring good luck. What do you like most about cats?

Cats can be so many different things at once; Adorable, funny, cocky, affectionate, independent, silly, serious, quiet, loud, nonchalant. We just love how versatile of a creature they can be and we also love their independent nature. We are both introverts so we find that a cat’s companionship brings a lot of comfort.

You made up a new word for your furry models – “meowdels”, and you’re tagging them on Instagram. Do you create custom collages?

Yeah, the word “Meowdel” has been going around on the Internet for some time but we thought it’d be funny to incorporate silly cat puns into the project. Our priority is to create a high end project with our visuals and branding but we also want to keep it accessible and playful. And yes, we are currently accepting commissions for custom collages of cats. You can message us on Instagram for more information.

What is your favorite cat outfit? Perhaps there is a special one?

We have a few favorite ones…it’s hard to choose. Maybe Kat (SS1997, SS2022) can take the prize….or Oreo (FW2018)!

I saw that you created a similar account with dogs. But there’s only one publication so far. Do you plan to develop this account further? And why did you decide to create it?

Yes we created @dogs_wearing_cdg and @dogs_wearing too. We will develop both accounts further, same concept as cats. Dogs also deserve their styling! We love all furry animals. We just happened to start with cats because “A” is obsessed with cats and also because these collages are very labor intensive and demanding, so we can only focus on one project at a time.

Do you want to move from paper collage to digital?

Nope. Analog collage is the heart of our collage project. We will always use analog first, it’s what gives the project the whimsical aesthetic, and we love it. Digital collages can be phenomenal too but physical touch, cutting the paper and tangibly styling the pieces feels more natural to us. It’s all part of the slow-art experience in a world filled with fast and disposable trends.

What are you most proud of about this project?

The community that we somehow managed to build around this project. We never intended for this project to attract much attention, so we are very grateful for the community of creatives and cat lovers for their support. We love involving our followers’ pets in our collages as well as people we admire from the fashion world.

Connecting with individuals on the internet through our common love for CDG and cats has been amazing!

What would you like CatsWearingCDG to become in five years?

We have a lot of plans for all of our collage projects! We recently launched our print shop where we’re offering limited quantities of fine art prints of selected cats, we put a lot of time into the prints and we’re really happy with how they’ve turned out. Now that the print shop is live, we really want to start working on our book.

Maybe next year we can have enough cats to publish an awesome coffee table book. And… in five years, we are manifesting that all of our collage projects of cats and dogs wearing fabulous pieces can become a massive platform for both fashion and art lovers. We are visualizing a platform for creatives to come get style inspiration as well as to add unique and fun art pieces to their collections. Collaborating with Dover Street Market and doing gallery exhibits of the actual physical collages in our favorite cities like NY, Tokyo, London, Paris, HK, etc would be amazing.

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