The Japonism in modern fashion_Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake

Fashion as an Wearable Art and Conceptual Clothing

new movements such as ‘Wearable Art’ and ‘Conceptual Clothing’ began to take shape alongside the traditional use of clothing in performance and, in effect, a new type of crossover Arts and Crafts aesthetic has begun to develop, looping back to the beginning of the century, without there being any discernible direct influence. The Japanese designers, in particular – Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto - come from a tradition in which there is no clear-cut distinction between arts and crafts. Indeed, it is for this very reason that Japonisme was such a major influence on the development of the original Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe.(Wollen, P., and Evans, C., 1998)

The Japanese designers also experiment with new materials –

Miyake employs technical experts in his Miyake Design Studio to explore the possibilities of new fabrics and new manufacturing technologies. The experimental use of strange materials is one of the features now linking art and couture.

Ceramic, for instance, has been used by both Tiziana Bendall-Brunello, an artist, and Martin Margiela, a Paris couturier. Other artist and designers are experimenting with woven stainless steel, rubber bands, newspaper, thistledown, wood and glass. A number of artists and designers are also concerned with the re-configuration of the outline shape of the body through provocatively ‘sculptured’ clothes. Both Georgina Godley and Rei Kawakubo have designed clothes which distribute concave and convex forms in contradiction to basic body shape.(Holborn, M., 1995)

The artist creates a visual language that is rooted in his own life experience and therefore unique, and sometimes strange to all the others. The artist’s visual language, however, is fixed by the processes of creation he has undergone in the past; it simply is a routine part of craftsmanship. Pride prompts the artist to use his visual language to set himself apart from carefully constructed reasoning such as Koestlr’s.(Koike, K., 1985)

Wollen, P., and Evans, C., 1998, Addressing the Century-100 Years of Art & Fashion, Addressing the Century, Mutability and Modernity: the 1990s, Hayward Gallery Publishing, London, pp.7-18, 97-111.

Koike, K., 1985, Hi-pop design seriese-5 Sensors of an age, Aesthetics of monochrome, Clothes that create space, The tactile temperament, and Clothed in lingering sounds, Hamano Institute, Okinawa, pp.52-68.

Holborn, M., 1995, Issey Miyake, Taschen, German, p.42,82,88.

Tsurimoto, S., 1983, Iseey Miyake body works, A perspective beyond form, Shongakukan, Tokyo. pp.32-54.