Comme des Garçons is turning 40 this year. In honor of the brand's anniversary, the Japanese institution is introducing a temporary brand simply titled "black," which will include 10 standalone stores intended to bring "positive energy" in hard economic times, says the New York Times. In true Comme des Garçons style, the brand will be serving up the collections in question "guerilla-style" in a manner "that epitomizes the style, the inventiveness and the originality of its founder," the iconic Rei Kawakubo (then slowly phasing them out over the next 18 months). While Kawakubo may not be a household name outside of the fashion industry, the reach of her sartorial influence is extremely significant. "Integral to her success is that she is too original to be pigeonholed," says Suzy Menkes. Respected by the art community as well as fashion, Kawakubo "has also built an independent fashion company with a turnover of $180 million in 2008, yet with an international reputation for creativity unsullied by commerce." Not to mention, her Dover Street Market store is best described as a "hive of creativity."

Hang on to your chapeaus -- Comme des Garçons for H&M has arrived! Well, in Japan at least. The monumental fashion collaboration debuted Saturday in Tokyo in conjunction with the opening of a new Harajuku H&M boutique. Designboom turned me on to a British Vogue video of the opening day chaos, as well as interviews with fashion heavyweights about the uniqueness and precedent set by the collection. And talk about some seriously dedicated fans. Exceedingly stylish Japanese young things captured on camera talk about waiting in line to see the much-anticipated collection (some of whom camped out days in advance and suffered through wind and rain in order to get their hands on Rei Kawakubo’s stylish duds).

This year is loaded with legendary fashion anniversaries. Not only did Calvin Klein fete its 40th during New York Fashion Week, but Masison Martin Margiela just rung in its 20th with an exhibition in Antwerp. But now, it’s Comme des Garçons’ turn to celebrate. Like Margiela, Comme des Garçons is commemorating its birthday with an exhibition in London.

Rei Kawakubo doesn’t care to have her photo taken. The Commes des Garçons visionary would rather allow her designs -- unusual, asymmetrical aversions to traditional beauty -- speak for themselves. And so they have. When first discovered on a Parisian catwalk in 1981, her idiosyncratic pieces were cast aside as “Hiroshima chic.” But Kawakubo stuck with it, clothing subcultures throughout the streets of Tokyo until being embraced by vanguard sartorialists and cutting-edge outsiders in North America, inspiring such modern iconoclasts as Helmut Lang and Martin Margiela along the way.

A capsule line for H&M isn't the only headline-grabbing collaboration from Commes de Garcons' Rei Kawakubo that'll be taking the fashion industry by storm this fall. In fact, Kawakubo has partnered with the logo lover's brand of choice, Louis Vuitton. In honor of the LV's 30th anniversary, Commes de Garcon's outpost in Tokyo's Omotesando district will house a temporary store within the store that pays homage to LV's ubiquitous monogram.