Kimono：Kyoto to Catwalk
Victoria and Albert Museum で来年2月29日に開催の展覧会の様子がわかってきました。
江麗さんからお知らせをいただきましたが、菊地信子さんのコレクションから2着展示されます。
どの着物なのかワクワク・・
超個性派クリエイター佐藤彰さんのAkira Times写真集『KIMONO TIMES - Wafuku Anarchist -』の中から
イメージ写真が使われています。一番上のは江麗さんがモデルかと思うほどそっくりです。
This article titled “V&A hosts Europe’s first major exhibition on kimono” was written
by Jess Cartner-Morley, for theguardian.com on Wednesday 9th October 2019 16.15 UTC
A rare 17th century treasure from Kyoto, the costume worn by Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi
in Star Wars and an haute couture gown designed by John Galliano for Christian Dior will be
among the exhibits in Europe’s first major exhibition on the kimono, the ultimate symbol of
Japan.
With catwalk pieces by Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo, and costumes from the Oscar-winning
film Memoirs of a Geisha as well as a cropped Jean Paul Gaultier kimono created for a Madonna
video inspired by that film, curator Anna Jackson aims to “overturn the idea of the kimono as
static, atrophied object and show it as a dynamic and constantly evolving icon of fashion”.
The story of the kimono traces Japanese society from the style-conscious celebrity culture
of 19th century Japan in which kabuki actors and courtesans were, says Jackson,
“the heartthrobs and fashion icons of the day” to its disappearance from daily life
in postwar Japan, where it become a codified costume mothballed in nostalgia and unwrapped
only for special occasions.
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, which opens at the V&A in February, aims to challenge the establishment
tradition in which fashion from Paris and London has been considered art and accepted as a global
rubric for taste, while garments from non-western countries have been regarded as exotic curios.
The kimono was at the centre of a cultural appropriation row earlier this year, when Kim
Kardashian West renamed her shapewear brand from “Kimono” to “Skims” six days after
the announcement of its launch.
The riff on her name sparked accusations of insensitivity and cultural appropriation with
the mayor of Kyoto, birthplace of the kimono, writing a critical open letter. Kardashian West
has apologised for the offence caused, saying that she “had really innocent intentions”.
“Cultural appropriation is about who has the power to speak,” said Jackson at the exhibition
launch. Jackson, wearing a kimono over a white shirt, said she had “considered the question
of whether it is appropriate for me to wear this. It is perfectly appropriate on my colleagues
who are Japanese, but on me – is it different from 19th century orientalism? This is an important
issue. But there is a danger that being mindful of the reverence in which the kimono is held means
that it gets stuck in the past, and that denies the impact it has had on global fashion and
mimimises its power to impact fashion in the future.”
The exhibition will explore the 21st century revival of the kimono among young people in Japan
who are rejecting the industrialised trend system of western fashion and returning to a timeless
mode of dress.
Seventeenth century trade between Japan and the Netherlands led to a Dutch vogue for kimono,
adapted to the northern European climate with warm padding. “There was already a tradition of
robes in Europe
– think of Holbein’s The Ambassadors – but suddenly you get all these rich, vibrant colours and
everyone wants one” said Jackson. A 1678 portrait of Dutch aristocrat Anna Elizabeth van Reede
will travel to the V&A for the exhibition, the first time it has left the ancestral castle for
which it was painted. In Edwardian England, kimono became fashionable in artistic circles as
a marker of bohemian taste.
With its straight seams and right-angled edges the kimono, unlike most western fashion, is cut
to neither trace nor exaggerate the human form. It is because “the body is irrelevant” to
the kimono, says Jackson, that it is traditionally displayed on a T-shaped frame, rather than
a mannequin.
The impact of the kimono on western fashion has been explored in the book accompanying the
exhibition by the director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, who examines how Japanese dress
culture dramatically changed the course of Paris fashion.
Show exhibits will include a dress designed by Alexander McQueen for Björk, immortalised
on the cover of her 1997 album Homogenic, and the iconic Star Wars Jedi costume which
George Lucas, an admirer of the films of Akira Kurosawa, conceived as part Buddhist monk
and part samurai. Milligan Beaumont, a young designer whose graduate collection of
“kimono hoodies” was bought in it entirety and taken on a world stadium tour by Christina
Aguilera, will also feature.
来年の4月には日本でも大規模なきもの展が開催されます。
なんだかすごく楽しみですね。それまでは生きていなくちゃ。
池田さんのコレクションも国内の美術館での展示が実現しないか楽しみに待っています。私は海外でも日本の素晴らしさ
を伝えてほしいと思うけれど、池田由紀子さんは古いものは一度着せてディスプレイしても傷んでしまうことが
あるそうで、海外では自信がなさそうでした。池田コレクションの魅力はセットアップの魅力なので、着物だけ
かけて展示はあり得ません。
この前「銀座いち利」の「きものEXPO」に行った時も池田さんの着物展示の着付けは大久保信子さんがされていました。
年取ってくるにつれて、日本文化の素晴らしさをますます感じます。伊勢型紙などの染や浮世絵などどれだけ西洋の文化に
影響を与えたかが、最近よくわかるようになりました。逆輸入されて原点がわかるという情けない状況です。
