EASTERN PROMISE
As a new exhibition on kimono prepares to launch at London’s V&A Museum, MARIE KELLY looks at what we can learn from a heritage piece that has enduring global appeal.
Marie Kelly pays homage to the kimono
In November, Rihanna attended a film premiere in California wearing a vintage John Galliano k imono from his 1995 c ol le c t ion, while Gwyneth Paltrow showed up at the 2019 Emmys in September wearing a vintage Valentino gown. In the past, celebrities used every opportunity to showcase how fashion-forward they were by choosing not-yet-seen pieces from upcoming collections. These days, however, they’re more keen to be seen in items that have a past, present and future. As Sonia Reynolds, co-founder of Stable Of Ireland, told me, craft is the new luxury.
Sustainability, the circular economy and climate action will define this next decade, and they are already dramatically influencing our spending habits. The success of Reynolds’ brand in just three short years is testament to the appetite for artisan products, handcrafted pieces and indigenous textiles. As shoppers embrace the psychology of buying fewer but better, they’re demanding not just quality from their clothing, but character too. Women want their luxury goods to have a narrative, to tell a story, to reveal something artistic, historic or cultural. This is where the “value” – both monetary and emotional – of clothes and accessories now resides: in their cultural context and social significance.
It’s fitting then that one of the V&A Museum’s first exhibitions this year is an exploration of the Japanese kimono, an item of clothing that is intrinsically linked to dedicated
craftsmanship and discerning buyers. Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk presents 350 years of kimono inside and outside of Japan, revealing how this extremely traditional mode of dress has a remarkably contemporary aesthetic and thoroughly modern appeal.
While the West has only begun to explore the notion of gender-neutral and unisex clothing, the exhibition’s co-curator Josephine Rou explains that the kimono was always a unisex piece in Japan, with its straight-seamed silhouettes that enveloped the body loosely rather than following its natural curvature as traditional Western dressmaking did at this time. For Louis Vuitton’s SS20 menswear show in June, artistic director Virgil Abloh demonstrated how the kimono continues to offer a template for sophisticated, unisex dress. Interestingly, he was also keen to emphasise the house’s relationship with authentic craft, saying, “There is an atelier here with 24 sewers, and that’s what makes it different.” Just like traditional kimono, which were heavily decorated with embroidered motifs ripe with meaning (pine, bamboo and plum blossom were considered auspicious symbols, as they each survive winter, so were associated with strength and vitality), Abloh used wildflowers as a metaphor for diversity, creating elaborate floral and lace embroideries.
Luxury houses have long been inspired by kimono, from Christian Dior’s SS07 haute couture collection and Jean Paul Gaultier’s design worn by Madonna in her 1998 video for “Nothing Really Matters” to Comme des Garçons’ kimonoinspired coat in 2012. Perhaps this is because the kimono is the very antithesis of fast fashion. According to Rou, “Indulgent amounts of fabric were used in their design; they traditionally had long, wide sleeves and exaggerated, padded hemlines, while layers of hand-dyed decoration and hand-woven patterns were painstakingly produced by highly trained craftspeople who worked out of factories in the Imperial capital of Kyoto.” Kimono inferred wealth and status onto their owners, she explains.
They were also the original must-have items for followers of fashion and lovers of luxury goods. Worn by Kabuki actors in 19th century Japan – the celebrities of their day – in Europe, kimono were quickly sought after by wealthy women with bohemian tastes and lifestyles. One of the portraits which will feature in Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk is by Irish artist Frederic William Burton and is of a woman named Elizabeth Blakeway, who is sitting in a chair draped in a kimono. For her to be painted in a kimono is significant; the subject must have felt it imbued her with a certain sartorial distinction. Japanese merchants made vast amounts of money creating modified versions of kimono for exportation after Japan ended its isolationist policy in the 19th century and opened its ports. It was around this time that Liberty of London established itself as a purveyor of Oriental goods and began selling these “commercial” kimono, which often had an additional panel at the back for greater structure and came with matching sashes instead of contrasting obi belts.
The V&A’s decision to house this exhibition now has as much to do with kimono’s reinvention by Japan’s younger generation as the West’s continued fascination with it. Young Japanese consumers and designers no longer see it as a mothballed keepsake from another era. They’re reimagining it for a contemporary consumer who is tired of fast fashion and the uniformity of global trends and big brands.
This next decade will prove a challenge for those big brands. For decades now, they have made their fortunes by encouraging conspicuous consumption; by “reissuing” It bags and generating hype around “must-haves”. At a recent Financial Times event in London, I listened to Jocelyn Wilkinson, responsibility programme director at Burberry, try her level best to move the brand’s image beyond one of a label that burned almost £30 million-worth of unsold stock last year to protect its “luxury” status to one that supports sustainability.
The culture and craftsmanship inherent i n kimono represents beautifully the direction fashion is taking as we begin 2020. Fashion is finally slowing down. What’s wonderful for consumers, especially in Ireland, is that we have a wealth of incredible artisans and slow fashion advocates creating and selling beautiful pieces without the “global brand” price tags. Luxury that doesn’t cost a fortune... I’ll buy into that.
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk opens at London’s V&A Museum on February 29 and runs until June 21, vam.ac.uk.
“The culture and craftsmanship inherent
in kimono represents beautifully the direction fashion is taking as we begin 2020. Fashion is finally slowing down.”