Kimonos Meet Couture - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimonos-meet-couture-15392695... DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY DJIA 25297.27 -1.18% ▼ Nasdaq 7362.38 -0.80% ▼ U.S. 10 Yr 2/32Yield 3.160% ▲ Crude Oil 71.72 -1.98% ▼ Euro 1.1558 0.33% ▲ This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimonos-meet-couture-1539269544 IDEAS | ICONS Kimonos Meet Couture An exhibition at the Newark Museum explores the influence of traditional Japanese clothing on fashion design Kimono made in Japan for export to Western markets, ca. 1910 PHOTO: NEWARK MUSEUM By Susan Delson Oct. 11, 2018 10:52 a.m. ET Its impact is plainly visible in a 1920s evening coat by Chanel, a daring 1990s ensemble by John Galliano and a gossamer-thin, sci-fi confection made by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen in 2016. For a centuries-old, profoundly traditional garment, the Japanese kimono is quite the fashion influencer. Opening October 13 at the Newark Museum, “Kimono Refashioned: 1870s–Now!” explores the enduring presence of the kimono in global fashion. The exhibition features more than 40 garments by Japanese, European and American designers, paired with traditional kimonos, Japanese prints and other objects from the museum’s collection. Newark is the inaugural venue for the show, which was co-organized by the Kyoto Costume Institute and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. “The kimono has had multiple moments in which certain key designers have latched onto elements in both the structure and the fabric techniques,” said Katherine Anne Paul, curator of Asian art at the museum and a co-curator of the show. In the West, the 1 of 4 10/11/18, 11:19 AM Kimonos Meet Couture - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimonos-meet-couture-15392695... kimono began making a splash in the late 19th century, as Japan opened to global commerce and joined a wave of international trade expositions in London, Paris and Philadelphia. As soon as kimonos became widely available, said Ms. Paul, “dressmakers started to take apart the fabric and use it in their fashions.” Evening dress by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, 1991 PHOTO: THE KYOTO COSTUME INSTITUTE Organized chronologically, the exhibition opens with a look at one such garment—an 1870s formal day dress whose bodice and high-bustled overskirt were fashioned from a repurposed silk damask kimono. It’s paired with a 19th-century kimono of similar fabric, shown as a Western woman of the era might have worn it—as an at-home robe or dressing gown casually donned over streetwear. In the late 1800s, Japanese woodblock prints, or ukiyo-e, also became more widely known in the West, and their depictions of graceful women in traditional clothing increased the garments’ allure. One extravagant evening coat on view, made around 1913 by Paris couturier Amy Linker, borrows its silhouette from a highly formal Japanese coat, with a wildly impractical, floor-sweeping train. Singling out French designers Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet, the exhibition goes on to explore the kimono’s flat cut as an inspiration for the cylinder silhouette of the 1920s. “Paul Poiret did wonderful things because he was so influenced by motifs,” Japanese designer Issey Miyake remarked in 1996, “but Vionnet really understood the kimono and took the geometric idea to construct her clothes— and that brought such freedom into European clothes in the 1920s.” Garments in this section include an elegant evening coat with simple, flowing lines, designed by Chanel around 1927, and Vionnet’s tubular 1923 “Henriette” evening dress. Borrowing a traditional Japanese textile motif, its single piece of fabric is composed of 56 interlocking gold and silver lamé Ts. That simplicity of cut has carried over into contemporary fashion, particularly in the work of Mr. Miyake. Following his concept of “A-POC”—or “A Piece of Cloth”—two 2 of 4 10/11/18, 11:19 AM Kimonos Meet Couture - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimonos-meet-couture-15392695... dresses on view from his summer 2011 line were created from single pieces of fabric and designed to fold flat. Inspired by origami paper folding, the dresses become three- dimensional when worn. Hanging lightly on the body, they reflect Mr. Miyake’s focus on the Japanese idea of ma—the space between the body and the cloth—that the kimono exemplifies. For Rei Kawakubo, another Japanese designer, traditional kimono fabric techniques like dyeing and stenciling are sources of inspiration—particularly shibori, a tie-dye method in which small sections of cloth are wrapped in thread. “The cloth is puckered,” said Ms. Paul, “and the puckering creates this amazing texture.” In a Western adaptation, Italian designer Maurizio Galante used the shibori technique in a sleek 1994 pullover, giving it both spiky texture and body-clinging stretch. Dress by Iris van Herpen made from Super Organza material, 2016 PHOTO: THE KYOTO COSTUME INSTITUTE Others have focused on design elements of the traditional kimono, such as the open collar and obi sash. In a remarkable fusion of East and West, an ensemble from John Galliano’s autumn/winter 1994 collection grafts the trailing train, crossover collar and wide sleeves of a kimono onto the traditional Western tailoring of a double-breasted suit jacket, topping it with a wide, obi-style belt—and a front hem of extreme micro- mini proportions. A dress from Yohji Yamamoto’s spring/summer 1995 collection is another East-West fusion, its sumptuous red and gold brocade skirt—made from the type of fabric used for obis—offset by a simple black jersey top. Perhaps the most adventurous piece in the show is a dress from Iris van Herpen’s autumn/winter 2016 collection, made from a material called Super Organza—or in Japanese, “Heavenly maiden’s feather robe.” A polyester thread with a diameter roughly one-fifth the thickness of a human hair, Super Organza was originally developed to shield components in plasma televisions from electromagnetic waves. Van Herpen used the shibori tying technique to create bubblelike shapes in the fabric, then attached it in layers to a black undergarment. The resulting protrusions form a curving, translucent silhouette at the hem and sleeves. 3 of 4 10/11/18, 11:19 AM Kimonos Meet Couture - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimonos-meet-couture-15392695... The exhibition closes on a pop-culture note, paying tribute to manga comic books, anime movies, Japanese youth culture and their influence on younger designers. Despite their graphic punch, said Ms. Paul, “there are real social messages” in the garments, and “a lot of beauty—a lot of human interest.” In whatever form it takes, that beauty may well be the kimono’s most enduring fashion legacy. Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. 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