Adoption, Adaptation, and Innovation
Adoption, Adaptation, and Innovation
The Cultural and Aesthetic Transformations of Fashion in Modern Japan
This chapter examines the cultural and aesthetic transformations of fashion in modern Japan. It begins with a discussion of Meiji Japan’s adoption of Western notions, innovation, and aesthetics, particularly Western dress. It then considers how Japanese fashion designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto redefined and transformed the aesthetics and definition of fashion in the later twentieth century. It also explores the backlash against Western dress and influence; how dress and appearance became a primary way for journalistic critics to attack the government; the emergence of department stores (depaato) selling all sorts of women’s apparel; the Europeans’ embrace of “Japonisme”; and fashion design during the age of modernism (Taishō (1912–1926) and Shōwa (1926–1989) periods). The chapter concludes by profiling a group of individuals who placed Japanese design at the forefront of avant-garde fashion, namely: Hanae Mori, Kenzo Takada, Kansai Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo.
Keywords: fashion, modern Japan, aesthetics, Western dress, department stores, Japonisme, modernism, Hanae Mori, fashion design, fashion designers
Hawaii Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
