“Japan continues to be on the cutting-edge – maybe even the bleeding edge – of fashion,” says museum director and exhibition curator, Dr. Valerie Steele.  “However, Japanese fashion today embraces not only the cerebral, avant-garde looks associated with the first wave of Japanese design in the 1980s but also a range of youth-oriented looks, such as Gothic Punk Lolita and Forest Girl styles.  Some of the most interesting designers – including menswear designers – combine avant-garde and sub-cultural styles.  Equally significant is the Japanese obsession (not too strong a word) with perfecting classic utilitarian garments, such as jeans and work wear.”

The introductory gallery of Japan Fashion Now, devoted to the Japanese “fashion revolution” of the 1980s, will set the scene for today's looks by featuring approximately two dozen iconic examples of asymmetrical, “deconstructed” garments by Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, as well as avant-garde styles by Issey Miyake, who combined innovative textile technologies with aspects of traditional Japanese dress.  Both men’s and women’s styles by Matsuda will also be featured, as will “Orientalist” fashions by Kenzo and Hanae Mori, and pop-culture jumpsuits by Kansai Yamamoto. 

 The main gallery will reveal approximately 90 ensembles set within a dramatic mise-en-scène evoking the iconic cityscape of 21^st-century Tokyo and organized on four platforms.  The first platform will illustrate how the work of pioneering avant-garde fashion designers has changed over the past 25 years.  Ensembles by Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, and Tao Kurihara, for example, will exemplify the evolution of deconstruction and reconstruction, as well as the influence of sub-cultural styles such as punk and the Japanese cult of cuteness.  Next will come a range of looks by Jun Takahashi of Undercover, described by journalist Suzy Menkes as “the essence of Japanese cool.”  New designers featured include Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi of Matohu (who are inspired by Japanese aesthetics), the flamboyant Toshikazu Iwaya of Iwaya33, and Chitose Abe of sacai.

Street and sub-cultural styles – from the elegant and bizarre costumes called Kamikaze suits worn by members of Japan’s notorious Speed Tribes to this year’s Forest Girl look – will occupy the third platform.  The significance of kawaii (cute) culture in Japan, which will be debated at the museum’s annual Fashion Symposium held on November 4-5, 2010, will be demonstrated by the hyper-cute Princess Decoration style and famous Lolita brands such as Angelic Pretty and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (the latter featured in the cult movie Kamikaze Girls), as well as Gothic Lolita fashions by brands such as Alice Auaa and Black Peace Now.  Hirooka Naoto, the designer behind h.NAOTO, Japan’s most successful Gothic-Punk-Lolita fashion empire (who has said, “I aim to be the most extreme and scandalous brand in the world”) will be prominently featured. A highlight of the exhibition will be the clothes he designed for idol singers Hangry and Angry.

Extreme, even fanatical, attention to detail is characteristic of much of the best Japanese fashion. While some designers are drawn to novelty, others focus on the perfection of vernacular garments, including work wear and denim.  “Utility products,” including denim and footwear by Hiroki Nakamura of visvim, along with jeans and vintage-style military and leather jackets by brands such as Buzz Rickson (creator of the William Gibson collection), Freewheelers, and Mastermind, will be featured in the street style section. 

Finally, the clothing category known as Cosplay (short for “Costume Play”) will be featured on the fourth platform. Not really fashion, Cosplay is more a type of performance art, associated with anime and manga.  Examples will include outfits for the characters Madame Red and Oscar (the latter from the famous manga Rose of Versailles), as well as one of today’s popular catmaid uniform

Japan Fashion Now is being designed by Charles B. Froom, with graphic design by Jen Pressley of MIRRORNYC.  Additional assistance will be provided by Assistant Professor of Communication Design C.J. Yeh and the FIT Media Design Club.

Japan Fashion Now has been generously sponsored by Yagi Tsusho Limited, a global marketing and merchandising company specializing in fashion that has been introducing excellent brands from Europe and the U.S. to the Japanese market for more than 60 years, MONCLER and MACKINTOSH among the most recent.

Book

A lavishly illustrated book, also called Japan Fashion Now, will be published by Yale University Press, with essays by Valerie Steele (“Is Japan Still the Future?”); Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at FIT (“Fashion Revolution”); Hiroshi Narumi, associate professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design (“Japanese Street Style”); and Dr. Yuniya Kawamura, associate professor of Sociology at FIT (“Japanese Fashion Subcultures”).  Proceeds from the book go to the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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