Fashion: Yesterday, Today and TomorrowAn American designer can work for an Italian company, an Englishman
can design for a French couture house, and an Austrian can set up shop in
New York. The German Jil Sander and the Belgian Anne Demeulemeester
are major international talents. Of course, there is evidence of cross-
culturalism in the past as well: neither Schiaparelli nor Balenciaga were
French, although both flourished in Paris. Yet the internalization of fashion
has become especially noticeable ever since the Japanese invasion of the 1980s,
which also marked a new phase in avant-garde fashion.
Suzy Menkes has described the sensational effect of Kawakubo’s Spring/
Summer 1983 collection for Commes des Garcons: “Down the catwalk,
marching to a rhythmic beat like a race of warrior women, came models
wearing ink-black coat dresses, cut big, square, away from the body with no
line, form, or recognizable silhouette.” Menkes recognized that Kawakubo
was “search[ing] for clothing that owes nothing to outworn concepts of
femininity”. Most journalists were just shocked, and they used the language
of mourning, poverty, and atomic warfare, arguing that the clothes made
women look like “nuclear bag ladies”.
When American Vogue featured Kawakubo’s clothes in 1983, an outraged
reader demanded to know why anyone would want to pay $230 for “a torn
... shroud”. Joan Kaner, then vice-president and fashion director at Bergdorf
Goodman said that “Rei’s clothes are interesting to look at, difficult to wear.
How much do people want to look tattered?” The new Japanese clothes
also tended to be oversized and loose; to a hostile viewer, big and bulky.
“They do nothing for the figure,” complained Kaner, “and for all the money
going into health and fitness, why look like a shopping bag lady?”
As time went on, however, avant-garde fashion began to be accepted, at
least among certain artistic style tribes. The cognoscenti recognized that
Kawakubo’s infamous “ripped” sweater, for example, was not ripped at all.
The seemingly random pattern of holes was the result of careful thought
and technology. According to Kawakubo: “The machines that make fabric
are more and more making uniform, flawless textures. I like it when
something is off, not perfect. Handweaving is the best way to achieve this.
Since this isn’t always possible, we loosen a screw of the machines here and
there so they can’t do exactly what they’re supposed to do.” Her sweater is
today in the fashion collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where
it is recognized as an important development in late twentieth-century
design.
In addition to Rei Kawakubo, the most influential Japanese designers were
Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake. Both are the kind of designer that other
designers admire. Miyake was recognized early as a true artist of fashion,
whose explorations into textile technology have revolutionized fashion.