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Alexis Romano
Abstract
Curators have used the work of fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto in over
twenty-five museum-based exhibitions in Europe, North America, Australia,
New Zealand, and Japan. This paper questions what about Yamamoto‘s work
lends itself to different museum narratives, including those exploring the
histories of design, haute couture, radical fashion, and Japanese art. In part
one, I explore the different ways Yamamoto‘s work has been approached in
seven exhibitions in Europe and North America in the past eight years,
following the precepts set by a 1983 exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum
positioning Yamamoto in a Japanese avant-garde group. These approaches
reflect the different spaces and backgrounds of the organizers‘ implicated,
including curators of Asian art, architecture, and design and fashion
specialists—costume curators or the designers themselves. In part two, I will
consider how curators used these contradictory narratives in the shaping of
the only retrospective of Yamamoto‘s work in 2005.
*****
Notes
1
For a summary of the press reviews documenting Yohji Yamamoto and Rei
Kawakubo‘s Paris debut, see P Golbin, ‗Constat d‘état ou flashback sur le
paysage de la mode parisienne‘, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, M-P Foissy
Aufrère (ed), Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice, 2003, pp. 29-35.
2
J Samet, Le Figaro, October 21, 1982, my translation, cited in A Fukai, ‗Le
Japon et la mode‘, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, p. 22.
8 What‘s in a Narrative? Interpreting Yohji Yamamoto in the Museum
______________________________________________________________
3
G Sainderichin, ‗Éditorial: Le bonze et la kamikaze‘. Jardin des modes,
December 1982, p. 5, my translation, cited in P Golbin, ‗Constat d‘état ou
flashback sur le paysage de la mode parisienne‘, p. 29.
4
J C Hildreth, A New Wave in Fashion: Three Japanese Designers, Arizona
Costume Institute, Phoenix. [1983], p. 40. The author contextualizes them in
the history of fashion ―revolutions,‖ along with Paul Poiret‘s hobble skirt and
Christian Dior‘s ―New Look.‖
5
Certain scholars place Issey Miyake with Kenzo Takeda in the first ―wave‖
in the late 1960s and early 1970s (P Mears, ‗Être japonais: une question
d‘identité‘, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, p. 40) or as the ―founding father‖
of the second wave (Y Kawamura, ‗La révolution japonaise dans la mode
parisienne‘, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, p. 47).
6
Powerhouse Museum, ‗Teachers‘ Exhibition Notes, The Cutting Edge:
Fashion from Japan‘, 2005, p. 2. Accessed online, November 2007.
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/.
7
For analyses of Japanese clothing design from a Western point of view, see
R Martin, ‗Our Kimono Mind: Reflections on Japanese Design: A Survey
since 1950‘. Journal of Design History, vol. 8, 1995, p. 219.
8
J C Hildreth, A New Wave in Fashion, p. 44. The author notes: ―Known for
his innovative fabrics, Yohji has them treated and prepared using traditional
methods such as ―stone washing,‖ and also rinsing bolts of cotton in the
Nagoro River near his factory in Gifu.‖
9
The Textile Museum, ‗Upcoming Exhibitions. ―Contemporary Japanese
Fashion: the Mary Baskett Collection‘‖, Accessed online, July 2009,
www.textilemuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming/Contemporary_Japanese_Fas
hion.htm.
10
M-P Foissy Aufrère, ‗Histoires du XXIèmeCiel‘, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in
Japan, p. 11.
11
Ibid, p. 11.
12
P Mears, ‗The Global Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and
Galleries exhibiting Asia‘, Fashion Theory vol. 12, 2008, pp. 112-113.
13
Ibid., p. 113.
14
P Mears, ‗Être japonais: une question d‘identité‘, p. 37.
15
Y Yamamoto, cited in F Baudot, Yohji Yamamoto, J Brenton (trans.),
Thames and Hudson, London, 1997, p. 13.
16
Y Yamamoto, cited in S Menkes, ‗Yohji Yamamoto: ―Just Clothes‖ from
the inside out‘. International Herald Tribune. ―For a long time I didn't want
to touch it—I am Japanese and I didn't want to do souvenirs […] Then one
day, I thought it is time to touch it and to break all my taboos—kimonos,
body fit, high heels.‖
Alexis Romano 9
______________________________________________________________
17
For a summary of Japanese dress from the mid-nineteenth century, see A
Fukai, ‗Le Japon et la mode‘, p. 21.
18
B Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System, M
Hewson (trans.), Berg, Oxford, 2005, p. 72.
19
Y Yamamoto, ‗May I help you‘, in Talking to Myself vol. 1, Carla Sozzani,
Milan, 2002, s. p.
20
P Mears, ‗Révolutionnaires: Rei Kawakubo et Yohji Yamamoto‘, in
XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, p. 68.
21
C Wilcox, ‗Introduction ―I Try Not to Fear Radical Things‖‘, in Radical
Fashion, C. Wilcox (ed), V&A, London, 2001, p. 2.
22
Y Kawamura, The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion, Berg, Oxford,
2004, p. 143.
23
Y Yamamoto cited in A Spindler, ‗Wenders‘ ―Notebook‖ has Yohji
Talking‘. Designer File, 1 April 1990, p. 8; See also P Mears, ‗The Global
Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and Galleries exhibiting Asia‘,
p.102.
24
Yamamoto would have had a large role in the conception of this exhibition,
for which he studied the museum‘s Charles James archive. For this
information I thank Deirdre Lawrence, chief librarian of the Brooklyn
Museum of Art.
25
G Trebay, ‗A New Gear for Modern Aristocrats‘. New York Times
Magazine, 16 January 2005. Accessed online, November 2007.
26
Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, ‗Exposition Yohji Yamamoto: Toucher,
essayer, SVP‘, 8 July 2006. Accessed online, October 2007.
http://www.pointsdactu.org/article.php3?id_article=465
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10 What‘s in a Narrative? Interpreting Yohji Yamamoto in the Museum
______________________________________________________________
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Alexis Romano is completing her M.A. at the Bard Graduate Center for
Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in New York. She is
writing her thesis on Emmanuelle Khanh and the shaping of stylisme and
prêt-à-porter in 1960s Paris under the direction of Michele Majer. A grant
from the Pasold Research Fund enabled her to present this paper at the First
Global Conference on Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues.