I spent around two hours in here. This had the highest admission price among my 'free-time ideas.' Good thing I enjoyed every second of it.
Avant-garde Japanese fashion since 1980, in an exhibition set up with comfortable navigational space; sheer white curtains divided sections of the works and created pathways through the area. There was also a second floor dedicated to couture by select designers. I was reacquainted with Yohji Yamamoto's work, and introduced to the designs of Rei Kawakubo, Jun Takahashi, Issey Miyake, among many others. The first few outfits were beautiful in black, and I liked observing the differences in the blacks between fabrics: silk, wool, leather, polyester netting. The flamboyant shapes of the clothes looked elegant in the layered black materials. I really liked one of Yamamoto's Fall/Winter women outfits, where he referenced the clean-cut lines of men's utilitarian clothing. The outfit itself did not accentuate a female figure, rather it was smart and simple, with the feminine touch of elbow-length soft leather gloves. Many of the fashion pieces were a result of the designers rethinking the tailored and sculpted silhouette of Western couture. They questioned the conventions of gender in clothing, because traditional Japanese kimono--literally the characters mean 'things to wear'--were for both women and men, and were constructed with the same template. Adjustments to an individual's height and width were done via folding and tucking away extra fabric under the obi (the thick belt around the waist) and at the shoulders. I learned a bit about traditional garb in my high school Japanese class, so it was really cool seeing how traditional conventions were combined with modern materials.
Rei Kawakubo's designs featured a lot wabisabi-style fabric, meaning the edges were purposely left unfinished. When applied to modern outfits, this style heightened the raw sensibility for the materials and how the fabric would interact with the body it clothed... I've worked with fabric and unfinished edges always turn out pretty messy for me. They looked manageable here though!
Another section of the exhibition I loved had pieces by Junya Watanabe and Hiroaki Ohya where the designers used a lightweight honeycomb structure to fit huge bulbous or geometric shapes on the mannequins. They took full advantage of the technologically advanced materials to make these weird, exaggerated shapes possible and not collapse after a few minutes. The rectangular prisms of the honeycomb structure prevalent in Ohya's pieces reminded me of modernist architecture, with its clean lines and unisex design.
There were several quotations that were personal '!' moments:
Yamamoto -
- Clothes define us to other people... when the jacket is left on its own, you can look and say, "Ah, it's Reiko's!"
- White is the absence of color, black is all the colors.
- This world has become small.
- Design isn't just to sell [an object], it determines a way of living for society... make good design for a good, happy society.
Most of Miyake's pieces were colorful with functionality as a priority--a tube scarf that could be pulled into a ribbed dress, and the A-POC (A Piece Of Cloth) clothes made from a weaving process that produces fully finished garments without a need for machine-sewn seams. I also liked his bubble-inspired headgear, which certainly would add some happiness and color to the city streets.
Kawakubo -
- I know, it's fabric, just fabric, but it speaks to us like a world... if it were a desert, and you a traveler, you would talk about its wind, stars, sun...
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