WAR-DROBE: Fantasy & Exaggeration in Contemporary Japanese Fashion

WAR-DROBE: Fantasy & Exaggeration in Contemporary Japanese Fashion features clothing by four leading contemporary Japanese fashion designers, and the clothes will be changed out during the middle of the exhibition. Ranging in date from 1990 to the present, the works focus on fantastical exaggeration and whimsical fantasy. Through ingenious shapes, varied textures, and innovative construction, these designers demonstrate that while still wearable, although perhaps not on an everyday basis, their clothing provokes the imagination, the spirit, and the individuality of the wearer..

Often noted for its dour silhouettes and prominent use of black by some designers, contemporary Japanese fashion is much more. The work of Issey Miyake is colorful, sculptural, ethereal, and fun, inspiring pure joy. Rei Kawakubo’s designs, under the label Comme des Garçons, while often intellectually challenging, are also aesthetically fearless, and surprisingly whimsical. In contrast, Yohji Yamamoto’s clothes are haunting, mysterious, classical and timeless, often referencing great Western designers of the past. And Junya Watanabe’s work, while outwardly youthful and edgy, conceals an innovative technical mastery of his craft.

“The influence of Japanese designers on modern fashion cannot be overlooked,” states the curator Audrey Yoshiko Seo. “Through their technical innovations and aesthetic fearlessness they have been able to exert a profound and revolutionary effect on the definition of international fashion in the later twentieth century. In doing so, they provided new impetus to Western fashion, partly by reiterating cultural and aesthetic East-West conflicts from the past, and more significantly by resolving them on their own terms.”

By redefining and transforming the methods of making clothing and the meaning of fashion, these four Japanese designers have significantly impacted Western fashion, giving rise to a widespread avant-garde movement lasting from the late twentieth-century through today.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website