How to date Comme des Garçons (+ Junya Watanabe)

The tells — 6, sourced

1. 01

   Era boundary first: the collectible archive is Rei Kawakubo's MAINLINE runway ('COMME des GARÇONS', line code G or E) and 'HOMME PLUS' (her conceptual menswear runway, code P or X) — plus the designer sub-lines 'JUNYA WATANABE COMME des GARÇONS' (code J/V, from AW1992) and 'JUNYA WATANABE … MAN' (code W, from SS2002). Everything else is diffusion at a fraction of the price: HOMME (code H, tailoring), SHIRT (S/F), CDG-CDG (R, from SS2005), Tricot (T), Black (1), and PLAY (A) — the heart line, casual, NOT archive. The costliest error is paying mainline money for a diffusion line.

2. 02

   THE PRODUCT CODE (the crown jewel — collector-decoded via Truss Archive + a compiled forum gist + playful-dc; corroborate with construction, not a brand publication). The care/quality tag carries a code whose FORMAT changed in 2001. PRE-2001: 'LG-MM###' — L = line letter, G = garment-type letter, MM = production MONTH. POST-2001: 'LS-G###' — L = line letter, S = a SEASON-ID letter (new in 2001), G = garment type. So on a post-2001 tag the SECOND letter now names the season.

3. 03

   THE 'AD####' YEAR IS NOT THE SEASON: the tag also carries a production year as 'AD####' (present from 1988) — this is when the garment was MADE, not the season it belongs to. A/W collections are typically produced in the spring/summer of the same year and S/S collections in the autumn/winter of the year before, so 'AD2004' could be AW2003 or SS2004 — combine the AD year with the season-letter (post-2001) or the production month (pre-2001) to fix the exact season. Season letters cycle (e.g. 'M' = SS2004 / SS2014 / SS2024), so the AD year is what disambiguates the decade.

4. 04

   The line-letter map is the attribution key (first letter of the code): G or E = mainline; P or X = HOMME PLUS; H = HOMME; S/F = SHIRT; R = Robe de Chambre (to AW2004) then CDG-CDG (from SS2005); T = Tricot (to 2021) then Tao (from 2022); J/V = Junya; W = Junya MAN; A = PLAY (from 2002 — but 'A' BEFORE 2002 is Noir, so check the AD year); 3 = Tao (2005–2011) then Noir Kei Ninomiya (from 2013); 1 = Black CDG. A letter claimed for a line before that line existed is a relabel or a fake.

5. 05

   PLAY is the most-faked CDG object on earth — and it is never archive. The Filip Pagowski 'peeping heart' (from 2002): the black pupils must be STITCHED, not printed or painted; the top of the heart is a ROUNDED curve, never a pointed 'V'; the stitching is heavy-weight; genuine PLAY is Made in Japan; on the brand tag the 'P' and 'Y' of PLAY sit directly above the 'O's of 'Comme des Garçons'. (Collector-authentication via The RealReal — weight with provenance, not proof alone.)

6. 06

   The undervalued lane: Tokyo-era pre-Paris pieces (late-70s–early-80s) and the 1970s Tricot / Robe de Chambre hand-knits are museum-grade yet can open cheap (early lots at the Oct 2025 Piasa auction opened $250–400; a Round Rubber SS1984 top estimated $300–400 sold for $4,900). Junya WOMENSWEAR trades below his MAN line at the same quality. What NOT to overpay for: PLAY or any diffusion sold as mainline archive; a Junya collab sold at mainline-runway money; a season misread off a cycling season-letter without checking the AD year.

Two sources or it ships as rumor. Where a tell is collector-lore rather than a museum fact, the tell says so — weight it with construction and provenance, never alone.

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