Exhibiting Asia: The Global Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and Galleries

Abstract

Japanese fashion creators, mainly Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto, began to present their revolutionary concepts on the runways of Paris in the early 1970s; their designs had a profound impact and did much to change the direction of avant-garde fashion. The presentation of Japanese fashion in museum and gallery exhibitions over the past thirty years has also been influential. Exhibitions organized by leading Japanese institutions, such as the Kyoto Costume Institute, contributed to the existing historical understanding of this Asian country's impact on western art and design. Other exhibitions advanced the technical possibilities of presenting fashion in a static environment. Issey Miyake in particular used high technology to animate many of his best-known designs. These Japanese designers, and the work of their younger compatriots Junya Watanabe and Jun Takahashi, continue to be directional. Curators around the world regularly incorporate them in inter-disciplinary exhibitions that juxtapose or align fashion with other design disciplines (architecture, industrial design, textiles, etc.) and even fine art.