30 years of Japanese Fashion
On my recent trip to London to see the family I had a free day and I visited Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion at the Barbican. This exhibition is the first in Europe to show avant-garde Japanese fashion that challenges ideas of beauty, function, ultimately elevating the work into art. As I entered the ground floor gallery was divided by banners of white fabric and clothed mannequins stood on top of plinths. My favourite on this floor was Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons piece from the autumn/winter collection 2000-01 which I like to call the flame. The skirt piece was constructed in a honeycomb formation from translucent fabric, which appeared to be glowing under the lights. The edges of the fabric look so soft and fragile it amazed me how the piece was actually standing.
Up on the first floor the designer’s collections were individually set in their own spaces with sound, sometimes video from the catwalk shows which the clothes had featured in. I was blown away by the presentation of Jun Takahashi, Undercover, autumn/winter collection 2000-01 each mannequin is completely encased by the clothes in an almost fetishistic manner and placed in front of a wall covered in matching fabric. I love how the clothes wear the person rather than the person wearing the clothes which I feel reflects our obsession with brands and consumerism, a worrying glimpse into the future perhaps? Last but no means least was Issey Miyake’s most recent collection 132 5, which is made from recycled fabric which emerges from flat packed polygons into wearable garments. The curation and display of the work throughout was really impressive particularly Issey Miyake’s work that had the polygons placed at the front like mathematical drawings and then behind, the mannequin wears the garment. Video was used extensively from interviews with the designers, documentation of the catwalk shows and ‘how to’ animation. Large scale lambada framed prints hang on the walls of Kawakubo’s designs which have been photographed by Naoya Hatakeyama that document the bold, simple shapes in a two dimensional image. Please follow the link below for more details:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=10771
