Japanese Fashion Changes the World! Future Beauty presents 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition in London and Munich

30 years after Japanese designers first made their mark on the contemporary Western fashion scene, the Barbican is hosting the first exhibition in Europe to present the best of the many avant-garde looks we have come to admire ever since.

Kate Bush, Head of Art Galleries, Barbican Centre, said: ‘The great Japanese designers – Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto – changed fashion forever in the 1980s. The tight silhouettes of Western couture were jettisoned for new fluid shapes. Out went the magnificent ornament and extravagant techniques of the post-war tradition and in came a stark, monochrome palette and an entirely new decorative language – holes, rips, frays and tears – emerging from the stuff of fabric itself.’

Japanese designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto redefined the very framework of fashion as a concept, their restructuring challenged established Western notions of beauty and fashion crossed the boundary into art.

In fact, the whole contemporary idea of fashion and art being closely intertwined was kick started with a groundbreaking cover shoot. A model dressed in an Issey Misseyake piece, bold, structured, sexy, sculptural, graced the cover of Art Forum magazine in 1982. Two bitterly divided characters were reunited, fashion and art kissed and made up - a new era of fruitful collaborations began.

The Barbican brings us close to this burgeoning creative movement by refraining from using the glass cabinets we are so used to seeing at other fashion exhibitions. White semi-transparent fabric is hung and stretched to both section off the different themed areas of the exhibition, whilst refraining from setting out clear divisions and boundaries, very much like the inspirational designs themselves.

Future Beauty explores the work of these visionary designers in relation to Japanese art, culture and costume history. The exhibition sections are titled ‘In Praise of Shadows’, ‘Flatness’, ‘Tradition and Innovation’ and ‘Cool Japan’.

The sections cover areas of interest such as Japanese pop culture and the influence of the street style we all love, as well as the influence of traditional Japanese clothing culture which conceals the male and female figure in flat lengths of fabric. There is a also a section dedicated to exciting Japanese newcomer talent such as Akira Naka and Anrealage.

The exhibition at London’s Barbican is a definite go see! But those that can’t make it before the 6th February 2011, will be pleased to read that Future Beauty is also available as a book and will travel to Munich's Haus Der Kunst in March 2011.

Future Beauty

The Barbican Art Gallery
Silk Street
London
Until 6 February 2011

Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstr. 1
Munich
4 March – 18 June 2011

Future Beauty book
£45.00