Japan Fashion Now Exhibit

 

The "Japan Fashion Now" Exhibit has been going on here at The Fashion Institute of Technology since September 17th and I recently was able to go and see the exhibit! Being a Tour Guide on campus I always make brief mention about how this is the first exhibit to explore Contemporary Japanese Fashion in all of its radical creativity but I have never been able to see it!

Japan revolutionized fashion in the 1980's and everybody knows this but this exhibit clearly identifies the point that Japan is still on the list of top notch places that deliver fashion in a way that may not be previously be seen! 

                                       

Summary of the Exhibition:

An introductory gallery devoted to the Japanese "fashion revolution" of the 1980s includes asymmetrical, "deconstructed" garments by Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, as well as avant-garde styles by Issey Miyake, "Orientalist" fashions by Kenzo and Hanae Mori, and pop-culture jumpsuits by Kansai Yamamoto.  

The main gallery features a dramatic mise-en-scène evoking the iconic cityscape of 21st-century Tokyo.  Ensembles by Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, and Tao Kurihara exemplify the evolution of deconstruction and reconstruction, as well as the influence of sub-cultural styles such as punk and the Japanese cult of cuteness.  A range of looks by Jun Takahashi of Undercover link the cute and the scary, the beautiful and the ugly, the animate and the inanimate, the strange and the strangely beautiful.   New designers featured include Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi of Matohu (who are inspired by Japanese aesthetics), the flamboyant Toshikazu Iwaya of Iwaya33, and Chitose Abe of sacai.

An entire platform is devoted to some of Tokyo's up-and-coming menswear designers.  Former boxer Arashi Yanagawa of John Lawrence Sullivan, Daisuke Obana of N.Hoolywood,  Koji Udo of Factotum, Yasuhiro Mihara of Miharayasuhiro , Takeshi Osumi of Phenomenon (who just presented his first spectacular runway collection in Tokyo), and Yosuke Aizawa of White Mountaineering will be among those featured, as will be the pioneering label, Number (N)ine. 

Opening Video:

The following video includes an interview from Dr. Valerie Steele who is the Director and Chief Curator of the museum here at F.I.T. 

She is an extremely brilliant woman who is extremely knowledgeable about anything that involves our museum. Say it as you must but this woman is FIERCE! I wish I could have her next to me when it comes to my history exams.

The exhibit has recently been extended to stay open through April 2, 2011 so now everyone has time to see it! The best part of everything described is that the exhibit is free to the general public, alumni, and students so everyone is given the opportunity to see this captivating exhibit!