#acrossjapancuration

[eurfashion]

Yokohama robe in blue grey and pink quilted silk, ca. 1880. Fashion Museum Hasselt. Photo: Kristof Vrancken © Fashion Museum Hasselt/Kristof Vrancken.

In a first part we show the influence of Japanese fashion and aesthetics on western fashion through the centuries. Our story starts around 1850, when Japan opens up to international trade after a long period of isolation. It ends about 1980 with the noteworthy advent of Yamamoto and Kawakubo in Paris. One of the first products of the cross-fertilization between Japan and the West is the Yokohama robe, a kind of dressing gown made exclusively for the western market during the last decades of the nineteenth century.

[eurfashion]

Junya Watanabe, Techno couture collection. Autumn/Winter 2000-01. Photo: Etienne Tordoir for Catwalkpictures.com.

Gi-jutsu means technology or technique. Japanese clothing has traditionally excelled at technical ingenuity, the unique use of materials and special paint techniques. In this part of the exhibition, we show contemporary examples of technological virtuosity, a love of materials and fabrics, colourful prints, exceptional paint techniques like tie-dyeing, revolutionary construction techniques like origami, etc. These are all elements that are inseparable from the final shape of the garment. Very representative for this part are the techno couture looks by Watanabe, Iris van Herpen, Hishinuma as well as those by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy.

[eurfashion]

Comme des Garçons by Rei Kawakubo. Spring/Summer 2014. Photo: Etienne Tordoir for Catwalkpictures.com.

Rei Kawakubo (b.1942) consciously undermined the Western ideal of beauty, offering her own, alternative idea of femininity, with her intellectual, deconstructivist designs. She focuses on creating collections that challenge preconceptions about how man and women dress. This concept is obvious in the 2014 Spring/Summer collection. A series of looks expand in unusual places with bumps and/or atrocious shapes stuffed with goose down. It was her way of questioning the sexualisation and commercialisation of the human body by the fashion industry. This design is displayed in the Wabi-Sabi part of the exhibition.

[eurfashion]

Issey Miyake and Tim Hawkinson, pleated dress in ecru with grey print. Pleats, please. Guest Artist Series No. 3, 1998. Fashion Museum Hasselt. Photo: Kristof Vrancken © Fashion Museum Hasselt/Kristof Vrancken.

Ma is the Japanese word for the space between two structural parts. In a fashion context it refers to the space between the garment and the body, from the shoulders to the feet. Contrary to the West, where clothing is traditionally close-fitting like a second skin, Japan creates an extra dimension, which is liberating. Just think of a kimono. Characteristics like oversized, straight cut, gender neutrality, and blurred boundaries between men and women can all be related to an interpretation of ma. Good examples can be found in the looks of Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Delpozo and Maison Margiela. 

[eurfashion]

Undercover by Jun Takahashi. Spring/Summer 2005. Photo: Etienne Tordoir © Catwalkpictures.com.

Kawaii refers to the erotic, cute and surprising elements typical of cool Japanese fashion since the 1990s. After about 2000, kawaii was no longer an exclusive characteristic of streetwear; now it's an important source of inspiration for ‘high couture’ both for Japanese and western designers like Undercover, Westwood, Bernhard Wilhelm and for up-and-coming talent like Niels Peeraer.  

[eurfashion]

Maison Martin Margiela by Martin Margiela. Autumn/Winter 1990-91. Photo: Kristof Vrancken © Fashion Museum Hasselt/Kristof Vrancken.

Interaction between the West and Japan was given a new interpretation at the beginning of the 1980s. Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto had a huge impact on a new western style. Their Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic can be described as imperfect, incomplete and impermanent. It was translated into the so-called beggar look: shabby, asymmetrical, loose silhouettes with holes in monochrome black (and white too). This radical vision breaks with western ideals of beauty represented by close-fitting, finished and richly embellished garments. The deconstructivist designs by Martin Margiela and the black, sophisticated looks by Ann Demeulemeester are good illustrations of this cross-pollination.

[eurfashion]

Maison Margiela Artisanal by John Galliano, Fall 2015 Couture. Photo: Paolo Roversi for Vogue Italia, September 2011 © Paolo Roversi.

The new curator of Europeana Fashion Tumblr is Fashion Museum Hasselt. The curation discloses the five themes of the exhibition Across Japan, opening on March 4 and lasting until September 3, 2017. The exhibition shows the wonderful cross-fertilization between Japanese and western fashion. Fascinating innovations by Japanese avant-garde designers and their younger colleagues and western interpretations of ‘Japanese’ aesthetics are the core of Across Japan. Emphasis is placed on fashions created in the last 35 years, but the exhibition also pays attention to the historical context. After all, western interest in Japan goes back to the 17th century.