Review of ‘Kimono: From Kyoto to Catwalk’
Words by Florence Chadwick
Having fought against the push and pull of lockdowns, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibit Kimono: From Kyoto to Catwalk has finally come to an end, having closed on the 25th of October. This exhibition focused on exploring the transformation of Japan's national garment, the kimono, from the 1660s to modern day and posed some important questions around decoding national identity, global appeal and renaissance. Above all it focused on the evolution of tradition when faced with the modern generations - made all the more pertinent against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
From Kyoto to Catwalk - Introduction
"Sex and secrecy, politics and power, fashion and film, anxiety and influence: all can be traced through the kimono [...]" – The Telegraph
For a French-centric fashion culture such as ourselves, this exhibit provides a landmark East Asian counterpart with an in-depth social, historical and economic narrative. The display starts at the beginning of the Edo period in the late 1600s in an era of great political and urban expansion. The display cases highlight simplicity of design and ease of wear with the kimono's ability to be layered for both occasion and the changing seasons. Translated, kimono means 'a thing to wear'. Simply constructed, it was an article of clothing worn by all members of society, from the ruling Samurai classes to the merchant class who were seen as a necessary evil that profited from the work of others.
The kimono was 'wearable art': with no distinctive form-fitting shape, class distinction and gender were highlighted through adornments, material quality and pattern which permitted a much greater artistic liberty. The exhibit traces social change which led to a slowly evolving design by the end of the 1700s. The kimono's simplicity was reflected in the layout's minimalist approach with a subtle colour scheme to emphasise the boldness of displayed garments. The layout used screens to both physically and metaphorically frame your progression to the next phase of the kimono's evolution while soft traditional music transported the viewer to feudal Japan.
The second room - the Edo period
The second section oversaw the development of the kimono into the 1800s and its introduction into the global market. This conversation was initiated by the central placing of a portrait of Anna Elizabeth van Reede by Gerard Hoet - Van Reede is depicted wearing a black floral kimono. Japan operated a 'closed country' policy in the Edo period and only permitted the Dutch to trade with them. Holland introduced patterns such as checks and stripes into Japanese kimono culture that became very popular and in turn the Dutch established the exoticism of the East Asian kimono in Western culture.
The Dutch capitalised on the kimono's unprecedented popularity and commissioned Japanese designers and artists, leading to increased exports right up until the mid-1800s when Japan opened its ports due to political shifts. With the increasing demand for the kimono style in the West, curator Anna Jackson visually recreated this by installing floor to ceiling display cases with brightly coloured kimonos within a mirrored room to provoke the idea of multiplicity with its many reflections. This room ties in with the 1900s in the next section, as described below, with the kimonos' more abstract designs and the central portrait of a fashionable Japanese woman in a boldly striped kimono from the 1930s.
Anna Elizabeth van Reede portrait by Gerard Hoet
The presentation of the 1900s is characterised by the Japanese developing a 'Western kimono' specifically for foreigners which adapted elements of the kimono such as the obi (sash) and substituted them for tasselled belts and quilted materials so that Western women could wear them with ease. Meanwhile in Europe, it was having a radical influence on fashion with long sleeves, wrap-around necklines and the abandonment of the corset rising in popularity. This instalment displayed outfits from designers such as Lanvin, Fortuny and Emilie Flöge, a well-known muse of Gustav Klimt.
The penultimate exhibition room: late 1800s - early 1900s
In the last and final section, the space had been redesigned to form a futuristic garden with red, stylized topiary and white walls. While most of the earlier kimonos were exhibited on T-bar racks due to fragility, age and the focal point being designs on the back of the garment; kimonos here were displayed on modern 3D mannequins. In post-war Japan, culture was rapidly Americanised and the kimono relegated to a codified 'costume' for special occasions. Japanese street style and the millennial generation has recently breathed new life into the kimono by restyling vintage garments to protest the "ubiquity of fast fashion", as Anna Jackson put it.
The Final Room - the Modern Renaissance
Mannequins here showed inclusion of graphic and digital designs, reinterpretation and the borrowing of either form and/or patterns by a new wave of designers. From McQueen, Gaultier and Galliano to the icons, Freddie Mercury, Madonna and Björk, this minimalist layout exemplified the modernist reinvention of the classical kimono and its cyclical journey to yet again become an accessible and fashionable 'thing to wear'.
For all those who missed seeing it in person, Anna Jackson has released a five part video series on the V&A's YouTube channel, which forms a 30 minute intimate tour around the exhibit. See it here.
