From avant garde designer Issey Miyake and the beautiful traditionally inspired oriental fabrics, to fashion textile deconstructionist Rei Kawakubo of Comme de Garcons and the use of monochromatic dress fabrics, the Japanese have made their mark and pushed the limits of the imagination with their degree of talent, skill, and courage over the decades; attributes Japanese based designers and will have to pull on now more than ever in light of the recent atrocities suffered on multiple levels, and a rather uncertain future since the devastating earthquake almost a month ago.
Tag Archives: Japanese-fabric
J&O Celebrates Fashion & Art of Japan
From their traditional silk and brocade costumes, and heavy underground fashion scene, to their popular Jap-Animations and ancient forms of script writing, the rich culture and people of Japan have pioneered in the world of fashion, textile goods, and art much to the applause of industry critics and consumers far and wide. Yet in the wake of the recent devastation of an earthquake not seen in this magnitude for over 1200 years, anxious trend reporters and fashionistas wait in wonder as officials tally the number of lives lost, industries crumbled, and dreams destroyed that still remain to be seen. With Tokyo’s Fashion Week originally scheduled to run from March 18-25, this may very well be the first time a show like this will not go on.
Double Gauze, The Ideal Summer Fabric!
A little over a year ago we posted a blog about the wonders of gauze fabric as a summer material. And while we still agree that there is no fabric as lightweight, breathable, absorbant or fashionable as this ancient textile good for the lazy hazy days of summer, we are truly loving the newer double gauze cotton for its added non-transparent feature. Invented by the Japanese with the intent of curing just that, while still allowing the same desirable qualities of the fabric to remain, double gauze is the answer to all our ‘staying-cool-and-cute-in-the-summer’ woes.
L’Éxotique – The Far East in Fabric
The Far East has long fired the imaginations of artists. For centuries knowledge of the lands of the Orient was fragmentary and over time these places acquired a veneer of exotic mystery which attracted explorers and merchants. Eventually artists began to draw on the whatever information trickled back from the Orient as an inspiration to their work. Though many of these attempts to transmit the exotic are simply quaint exercises in superficial japonisme or chinoiserie, their influence can still be felt in the works they left behind.