COVER STORY • 4 Fashion as Cultural Policy – The Path to Be a Brand –

By Fukai Akiko

Photo: Kyodo News Japanese Culture & Fashion recent years, and exhibits of Japanese fashion designers such as Kawakubo Rei Manga and anime have captured the and Yamamoto Yohji continue to be hearts of young people worldwide, and held at art museums. the new PlayStation game console is so popular that the craze has led to incidents 1980s: Riveting Power of Japanese of theft. Meanwhile, sushi has become Fashion ubiquitous, sitting on prominent display in supermarkets in major cities around In the 1970s, Takada used Japanese the world. This global spread of Japanese colors and patterns in a Parisian style, culture has its beginnings in the 1980s while Miyake attracted attention by when “Japanese fashion” broke in on the incorporating the concept of kimono’s world stage and exerted strong influence. construction, namely the flat “a piece of It was in the 1980s that Japanese fash- cloth” (A-POC) look, into his designs. ion, representing Japan and its culture, In the early 1980s, however, Japanese stormed into Paris, the revered strong- fashion began to assert its riveting hold and control tower of the fashion power, with clothes by Kawakubo world where none had dared set foot (whose brand is Comme des Garçons) and before. Consequently, in the fashion- Yamamoto appearing on the Paris run- able streets of Paris, London, New York ways. The clothes shocked the Paris and Berlin, people welcomed the baggy, fashion world. Seen from the European blackish clothes. The look was striking- perspective, they were shapeless, asym- ly new compared to the clothes of Yves metrical and baggy. The clothes were Saint Laurent or Chanel that were in line described as looking as if they had been Japanese designer Yamamoto Yohji’s clothes with more ideas of traditional beauty. bombed. They were the opposite of characterized by pastel colors (from his 2005 The clothes of Japanese designers were European clothes that incorporated spring/summer collection) sold in boutiques with interiors abruptly graceful silhouettes and colors. The “rag changed into black, monotone decora- look” or the “crow look” was the term before,” staying as a source of inspiration tions, and people began to judge used to describe these avant-garde for a new generation of designers world- whether a street was fashionable based clothes, which were mostly made of wide. Yamamoto in recent years has col- on whether it had a boutique selling black, gray and other “hueless” fabrics. laborated with the international sporting Japanese designer clothes. Instead of adding decoration, the goods label Adidas to create a line of Now we are in 2007 and all that is a clothes were stripped of decoration. sporty street clothes dubbed Y-3. memory of a long-ago past. We ought, And instead of beautiful colors, they Meanwhile, Miyake has gained acclaim of course, to remember that the prelude were without them. The austere, ascetic for merging tradition with the newest to this phenomenon was the activities of appearance was perceived as expressing Japanese technology to make unique, Japanese designers in the 1970s such as the Japanese concept of wabi (taste for innovative clothes as in his Pleats Please Takada Kenzo and Miyake Issey whose the simple but refined) and sabi (for the and A-POC lines. The younger genera- works attracted much attention, but the old, quiet), and helped pave the way for tion of designers such as Watanabe Junya world of fashion changes at a dizzying the design trend of minimalism that and Takahashi Jun are also coming into pace, and everything quickly becomes began in the 1980s. Japan was then in their own. Japan has earned high regard history. Nonetheless, it is worth recall- the midst of remarkable economic for producing new and avant-garde ing that in the late 20th century, growth, and the country as a whole was forms that could not have been born in Japanese fashion with its creative, avant- in the spotlight. The works of Japanese Paris or, indeed, in European culture. garde spirit challenged the absolute, designers in areas such as architecture unshakable power that Paris wielded as a and graphics were remarkable, but it was “Kawaii”: Fashion Term Borrowed fashion leader over Europe and the rest the Japanese fashion above all that had from Japan of the world. I analyzed this phenome- the strongest impact. non more than 10 years ago, but studies Since then, Kawakubo has remained When it comes to contemporary on the subject have increased overseas in dedicated to “making clothes never seen Japanese culture, the world’s interest is

16 JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • March / April 2007 COVER STORY • 4

in manga, anime and video games. cept and even “otaku” (anorak or geek), innovative, continuously exploring new Naturally, this interest has influenced strongly associated with manga and territories. On the other hand, we fashion, with images and characters of anime, have been borrowed into the should take note of the observation by manga and anime such as Sailor Moon fashion world. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard in and Hello Kitty affecting the details of Combining tradition and a new sense “Symbolic Exchange and Death” that in clothes. The clothes reflect factors such of modernity, Japan’s originality has the world of mode, various forms die as mass appeal, childishness, straightfor- been transformed into designs of univer- out, but the instant a form is saved as a wardness, bad taste and lewdness, and sal nature, which have hence been wide- symbol into a reservoir that transcends have captured the imagination of people ly accepted by people across the world. time, it is circulated. As he put it, around the world who share the same French brands have developed their own information. It is easy to surmise that Conclusion archives of fashion content, presenting the popularity of brands produced by a them at fashion shows in art museums new generation of designers such as Today, people worldwide increasing- and letting the public see firsthand the Takahashi (Undercover) and NIGO in ly identify fashion with celebrities (not cultural appeal of brands. Among such cities such as Paris and New York is con- the kind of celebrities in their tradi- recent moves, Chanel held an exhibition nected to the spread of Japanese pop tional sense) whose images are project- in 2005 at the Metropolitan Museum of culture. Manga has also made its mark ed in enclosed, almost hobby-like gen- Art in New York, and is planning to on street fashion, having strongly res in media such as magazines and hold another in Moscow’s Pushkin inspired the unique Gothloli (from television and who have been formed Museum of Fine Arts in September Gothic and Lolita) genre of clothing into objects of admiration. In such cir- 2007. worn by the young in Tokyo’s trendy cumstances, it does not appear to be of As I have already mentioned, the areas of Shibuya and Harajuku. Such much significance to hammer out cre- accomplishment of Japanese fashion in aspects of Japan have not escaped the ativity and originality of fashion itself, creating astounding designs in the 1980s attention of John Galliano (Dior) and or of clothes themselves. It is an unde- has become nothing more than a page in other Paris fashion designers. niable fact, though, that for today’s the history books here in Japan. But The fascination with Japanese pop young Japanese, the fashion icons are outside of Japan, there are moves to culture was made still more visible in people such as magazine model Ebihara reassess the feat of Japanese fashion, as 2003 when the Paris luxury fashion Yuri nicknamed “Ebi-chan” and pop seen in Europe and the United States house Louis Vuitton appointed interna- singer Koda Kumi. Given this, the (where fashion is perceived as the off- tionally acclaimed Japanese contempo- presence of fashion designers is little spring of cultural activities), Asian coun- rary artist Murakami Takashi to design discernible. tries, and Australia (the latter two patterns for its handbags. Murakami In my view, what we are seeing today searching for hints on direction for their uses the so-called “superflat” style, remi- is excessively changeable and superficial. growing fashion industries). niscent of the traditional Japanese I believe – to be more exact, I hope – A quarter of a century has passed since method of painting flat areas of colors that when this current phase is over, we Japanese fashion rose to the point of that so surprised European artists of the will see a return to real cultural creativity becoming the most useful tool to appeal 19th century such as Edouard Manet, and fashion will be restored to its natur- for Japanese originality. And at long Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. al state. It is only through creative cul- last, Japanese fashion is becoming widely It is this flat style, as well as the use of tural activities that can produce values of known not among limited fashion cir- numerous colors favored by the genera- universal nature. It follows that creative cles but by many people across the tion raised in the age of liquid crystal activities blossom in places that have globe. This illustrates the fact that the displays, and above all, the manga-like culture, namely, those places blessed passage and accumulation of time is nec- “kawaii” (cute) taste of his work, that with the right combination of condi- essary for a brand to firmly establish has endeared Murakami to fans world- tions, people and skills. itself. This is particularly true of fashion wide. Incidentally, the Japanese Kojien It is by no means a coincidence that brands that are closely linked to a coun- dictionary defines kawaii as “having France has so far led the world of fash- try’s culture. Now that we have come youth or childishness or the state of a ion. Since the times of Richelieu and this far, it may be time to consider poli- small thing or person producing a desire Colbert in the 17th century, French cies to make use of the cultural aspects in one to treat it or the person with leaders have adopted cultural policies of fashion – or the reverse side of fashion care.” with fashion in mind. The French fash- business. Led by Japanese fashion in the 1980s, ion brands that grew into international the Japanese aestheticism of wabi/sabi brands in the latter half of the 20th cen- spread minimalist trends, and since the tury not only had many years of experi- Fukai Akiko is professor at Graduate School, turn of the 21st century, the kawii con- ence behind them but also set out to be Shizuoka University of Art and Culture.

JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • March / April 2007 17