Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

This weekend, Anna and I went along with Theo Peterson and Ben Freeman to see the new Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition at the Barbican Centre - a large display of designs on loan from the Kyoto Costume Institute's famous collection.  I had read about the exhibit in this article written by Colin McDowell for Phaidon, and since I am currently enjoying working my way through his Fashion Today, I thought his recommendation should be heeded.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the exhibition, so I guess my paltry descriptions will have to suffice if you can't make it down there before it closes in February (I've borrowed the SS 2011 runway photos used here for illustrative purposes from Style.com).  The collection is split over two floors into cubicles delineated with pristine white sheets, and covers early works from the 80s and 90s on the lower floor with more recent collections upstairs.

Comme des Garcons (Rei Kawakubo)

Issey Miyake (Dai Fujiwara)

Being only well-versed (ha!) in the recent history of contemporary western fashion, I was hoping I would find my trip educational, and it certainly was!  Over the course of the tour, I learned about the development of modern Japanese design and its transmission to the West through the early pioneers of Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto.  Of course, I am familiar with these brands, but I had no idea how long they have existed, or what influence they have had on my personal style of dress.  For example, it seems that Rei and Yohji were almost single-handedly responsible for the (re-)introduction of black into the western wardrobe during the 80s, now a fashion staple and certainly the most prominent colour in my closet at the moment...  I was also surprised at how wearable some of the early collections were, especially at Comme, where draped and folded fabrics almost complemented the female form (quite shocking considering some of the distorted volumes and ragged fabrics I have got used to seeing around Dover Street Market).  As Ben suggested, they would look wonderfully striking on someone statuesque like Tilda Swinton (just like these covers she did for AnOther).  Seeing these earlier pieces, and reading about the Japanese design concepts of wabi sabi (finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence and modesty) and ma (negative space), has helped me to understand where current collections originate and allowed me to see greater beauty where before there was just disarray, or even ugliness.

Yohji Yamamoto

Undercover (Jun Takahashi)

Upstairs, along with more designs by the old guard, we found pieces by the new generation of Japanese artists like Junya Watanabe and Tao Kurihara (who both work under the Comme umbrella), Jun Takahashi of Undercover, and others such as Fumito Ganryu, Matohu, Akira Naka and Mintdesigns.  These brands, although all very different, still retain common ideas.  For example, the use of constantly innovative fabrics seems to be very important: Issey Miyake and the current creative director, Dai Fujiwara, have made origami-inspired fold-up dresses out of PET for the Pleats Please brand, or fashioned entire outfits from giant knitted tubes; Rei Kawakubo has turned overstuffed duvets into hunchbacked gowns; Jun Takahashi has wrapped his models in mylar suits like futuristic space women.  These new materials give the clothes an understated exclusivity - they are not obviously expensive and you really need to be 'in the know' to want or understand them.  This fits in with the Japanese design aesthetic being much more cerebral, as I see it, and artistically rather than commercially focused.

Tao (Tao Kurihara)

Junya Watanabe

Oh, and if the fabulous artworks on show won't encouraged you to pop by, then I would strongly recommend it just to see the shop alone!  A unique collection (in London, at least) of CdG perfumes, Japanese style books, accessories and even a copy of Eley Kishimoto's WERK No 17.  I couldn't resist getting myself a little bottle of the CdG Incense Avignon perfume (which smells exactly like the inside of a fusty old church, mmm) and this cheap-n-cheerful printed ring.

Sayonara
Duck
xxx