Japanese Tradition in Isssey Miyake - Design History Forum

Japanese Tradition in Isssey Miyake Chikako Hiramitsu [email protected] Osaka University Graduate School of Letters

Issey Miyake, a Japanese fashion designer, sets much value on bringing a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese wear, the kimono, to western clothing. Stressing the decoration of the fabrics and creating clothes in harmony with the feel of them, as well as designing clothes that resonate physically and spiritually with the wearer, these characteristic elements of his designs are inspired by the kimono. From the point of Orientalism, however, his view of Japanese traditions is unique to modern Japanese people who have been westernised and mimic the West. He can never be free from being typified as a 'Japanese designer,’ so the fact that he is Japanese creates the duality of being distinguished from the West while mimicking it. His final aim to create clothes that are universal achieved in his series of collections with pleats, can also be seen from the point of such a concept. This study will clarify how he introduced the kimono into western clothing and his position in the fashion industry. Keywords: Issey Miyake, fashion design, Japan, tradition

designs in which ‘the East meets the West’ can be clarified. Introduction 'East Meets West' Issey Miyake entitled his first book of works ‘East Meets West.’ The title was quoted from the poem

1. The East and the West in Miyake

‘The Ballad of East and West’ written by Rudyard Kipling, one of the colonialists. In the poem,

Haute couture as western clothing

Kipling stated that the East doesn't meet the West. But they do meet in the works of Miyake. The

After graduating from an art college in Japan,

modern fashion industry has spread across the

Miyake studied at Ecole de la chambre sandica in

boundaries of countries and nations, mainly in a

Paris for a year, and then worked as an assistant for

few big cities in developed countries. Issey Miyake

two years in the ateliers of Guy Laroche and

has received recognition for bringing a modern

Givenchy. From these experiences, Miyake got the

interpretation of the Japanese kimono to western

idea that haute couture typified western clothing.

clothing, in the fashion industry. This study sheds light on the way that the kimono is interpreted and

In his mind, haute couture dresses are solid

assimilated in Miyake's works with reference to his

structural packages, symbolising overdecorative

perspective on western, and eastern or Japanese

and heavy western culture. Such western dresses

clothes. Then, his method of producing universal

stress body

Design Discourse vol.1 no.1 2005 January

shape through

skilled tailoring

35

Japanese Tradition in Isssey Miyake

Hiramitsu

techniques. Miyake questioned this notion of

preserved and handed down over generations.

western dresses, doubting not only the forms of the

࠘fig.2࠙ He also sometimes creates new fabrics in

clothes but also their relationship with the wearers.

co-operation with the artisans in these districts.

To Miyake, making haute couture dresses is

࠘fig.3࠙ The textile designer, Makiko Minagawa,

comparable to serving the bourgeoisie and in

has been one of his partners from the very

complete opposition to his sensibilities. Haute

beginning. She comes from a family of dyers and

couture is intended for high and middle classes,

weavers that have lived in Kyoto for several

based on the strict distinctions of sex, class,

generations.

occasion, or purpose. From the 1950s to the ‘60s,

developed or improved the variety of traditional

haute couture extended its sphere of influence

Japanese materials ranging from simple striped

through

fashion

fabrics to some unique materials such as Japanese

magazines or movies, but at the end of the ‘60s

paper or basyoufu; a fabric made from leaves. Jack

some signs of decline began to appear. Miyake

Larsen pointed out their Japanese characteristics in

sympathised with this change in the minds of

the techniques, such as shibori3 or nishiki4, and in

western people, on the point of general doubts over

the colours without vividness or strong contrasts,

the trickle-down system in fashion at that time. He

and their modern characteristics in using new

found western culture, as well as western clothes,

fabrics, in the technical textile finishing for lustre

to be incompatible with other clothing. His

or stretch, as well as in their actual cost of

experiences in haute couture in Paris raised within

productions.5 The designs are then completed by

him the question, ‘Why should the standard be in

letting air into the chinks between the body and the

Europe?’ and from this, he started to release his

garment. Miyake refers to this air as 'Ma.' 6 On

clothes from the western definition and began to

account of the Ma, the body shape in the garment

create his own.

can't be seen in the outer appearance. It is not until

expanding

media

such

as

Miyake

and

Minagawa

have

the garment changes its expression through motion that the inner body can be recognised. Miyake considers Japanese culture to be rather spiritual ‘A piece of cloth’

and the physical senses restrained, characteristics that can also be seen in Nou costumes. He regards

The Japanese kimono was the starting point of

Nou costumes as allowing the players to express

Miyake’s search for his own definition. He designs

their spirituality by wrapping their bodies in an

a garment from within where the human body

oriental way. In olden times, Japanese people

touches the fabric, as opposed to the western trend

usually adopted such attitudes, making and their

of designing from outside the body. In the

minds and bodies relax in the same way when they

beginning, he chooses a fabric and checks the way

put on kimonos. From the kimono, Miyake got the

it feels against his own body. He has said that he

idea of enhancing the decorations of the fabrics

closes his eyes and allows the fabrics to tell him

and making the garments resonate with the human

what to do with them. Then, designs can be created

body.

that maintain the superiority of the decorations during dyeing and weaving of the kimono which has few varieties of forms. Miyake visits many fabric producing districts in Japan, where fabrics such as shijira1࠘fig.1࠙ and tsumugi2 have been Design Discourse vol.1 no.1 2005 January

36

Hiramitsu


figure1 .Jacket, Aprondress, Skirt 1976 Cotton Awa shijira . Shijira is the Japanese traditional fabric like sucker.

figure 2. Coat dressỞ 1976 The fabric is inspired by Tanzen, the Japanese traditional

He first became interested in Japanese dyeing and

fabric in the triple cloth with fancy check. But the light

weaving in his student days and after coming back

color are not from Tanzen.

from New York, his focus of interest was Japanese workers, such as Tobi7, Kurumahiki8 or peasants. This interest has prevailed right throughout his work. According to Miyake, there are some fixed ideas in the fashion industry that the West is more beautiful than the East, or that fashion means dressing up. He set out to break these taboos and discover the beauty of Japanese people. At first, he found beauty in the women who worked in the country and in an old activist in the women's movement. Not only were these women Japanese but also they were old, so they did not fit the fashion standard mould of beauty. They lived the unchangeable reality of their lives through labour or ideology.

figure 3. Bistier'Rattan Body'Ở 1982 Made of rattan and vinyl. It was made in cooperation with a workman of the tools for the Japanese tea ceremony.


37


Hiramitsu

From Japan to the Orient Miyake’s first theme of creation was formed under the concept of introducing some elements of the kimono into western clothing. This theme also questioned the origins of clothes. In Miyake's interpretation of clothes, the idea that the West is opposite to Japan, the orient, or the non-West can be seen. The theme ‘a piece of cloth’ ࠘fig.4࠙is not in opposition to the West, but the search for universal clothing reveals that it has some elements of both sides. This means that every nation has its original clothing culture from the very beginning, or that a garment can be made from only a piece of cloth. Starting with the kimono, he then extended his

figure 4. A piece of cloth Ở 1977 Ở

interest to other oriental cultures. He attended the

Nitting goun

‘Fashion Live Theatre’ event as a director, held in Kobe in 1981, and suggested sending some designers to Guatemala, Bali, India and Tibet to

The universal clothing

study the four points of the origin of clothes. The selected designers then went to these areas,

Miyake worked as an assistant in Gefftey Beene

discovered

being

for a year in New York after the May revolution in

conducted there and finally designed clothes

Paris. He got the idea of universal clothing through

adapted for mass production. In another case in

the influence of American culture that he

1984, he set out to revive traditional Indian fabrics

experienced at that time. He was fascinated by the

in contemporary clothing. This work bore fruit as

power of the young in American culture that was

the fashion brand ‘ASHA’ and in two exhibitions,

wielded by the hippie movement or pop culture at

‘Les Textiles de l'Inde et les Modeles Crees par

the end of the 1960s. He looked on the T-shirts and

Issey Miyake’ at Musee des Arts Decoratifs Paris

jeans as symbols of the liberty and freedom that

and ‘HASTH - Indian hand-weaving with Miyake’

transcended all boundaries of race, sex or class,

in Tokyo. In the exhibition’s catalogue, ‘Inventive

and set his sights on clothes that everyone could

Clothes’ in 1974, he insisted that this inane

wear in their daily lives. It was also from such a

tendency to stick to Japanese tradition or cultural

perspective that he began to notice Japanese

localities had to be abandoned, and that nothing

working wear just after he returned to his native

more could be gained from making distinctions

Japan.

traditional

practices

still

such as Japanese, American and European.

9

This idea of universal clothing that has been the basis of his work was put into practice to some extent in ‘Pleats Please’ ࠘fig.5࠙in 1993. In this collection of pleats, permanent pleating was Design Discourse vol.1 no.1 2005 January

38


Hiramitsu

processed with heat after sawing, owing to

his pleats were sourced from traditional Japanese

technological innovations in chemical fibers. It

techniques.

was praised for presenting the possibility of clothes as a field of industrial design and for exploding established

manufacturing

processes.

Pleated

clothes maintain their original forms even when

2. Miyake in the fashion industry

they are washed or folded. Their very simple designs are basically unchangeable though some

The ‘Japanese designers’

new colors or patterns are added each season. It is not too much to say that ‘Pleats Please’ is a

Miyake has had one bone of contention since

completed version of his universal clothing.

working in Paris. It is that he is always asked to incorporate some Japanese elements into his designs just because he is Japanese. By the time he presented his first collection in the 1970s, Hanae Mori had already established her position and Kenzo Takada had begun to be noticed in Paris. Mori's designs were quoted from traditional Japanese patterns and fabrics, such as the graceful floral motives or the luxurious fabrics used for Obis. In a sense she embodied the past Japanism, while Miyake and Takada were accepted as the new popular Japanesque. Certainly Miyake and Takada had some points in common, and were put together under the label of ‘Japanese designers.’ It is said that their loose-fitting forms and layered garments still have an effect on western clothing today. 10 Early in the 1980s, when Rei Kawakubo and Yhoji Yamamoto joined them, their first collections gave rise to much controversy in the

figure5. Pleats Please 1996

fashion

magazines

and

newspapers.

The

Made of polyester jersey.

imperfection, the de-constructiveness and the achromatic colours on their designs were regarded

There have been different pleating techniques used

as some spiritual Japanesque elements related to

in his work prior to this. In the 1970s, in the

the aesthetics of Zen. Their style was termed

‘oniyoryu’ collection, he made lengthwise irregular

‘Japan Shock’ and accepted as a deviation from

ripples on fabric, to which the traditional Japanese

proper western dress-theory or an invasion of the

technique of ‘shibori’ had been applied. In the

boundary to the west. 11 Then, Miyake was put

1980s, he made hand-processed pleats in polyester

together with them under the banner of the next

fabric and combined them with Japanese paper.

‘Japanese

Based on such details, including the repeated

progressive and experimental elements have been

experiments he conducted for five years before

required of ‘Japanese designers’ since then. Under

‘Pleats Please’ was presented, it is supposed that

the heading of ‘Japanese designers,’ their values


designers.’

Some

avant-garde,

39


Hiramitsu

are approved in their designs on the one hand, but

The

word

Orientalism

generally

means

a

their personalities are neglected and confined

movement in European literature and painting with

within the limits of the ‘Japanese’ on the other.

some romantic exoticism, or studies about the languages, arts, etc of oriental countries. But in Said, Orientalism is described as ‘a style of thought made between the Orient and the

From the point of Orientalism

Occident’ or ‘a western style of domination over the Orient.’14 In this concept, for the Occident, the

Such a view of Japanese designers cannot be

Orient is a place completely different from it and a

understood without considering the historical

symbol of obscurity, oppositeness and distance. At

courses of the West and Japan. In western clothing

the heart of this, is the fundamental difference

history, it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century

presumed to exist between the Orient and the

that the Japanese influences appeared. Some

Occident, and the Orient is typified as a peculiar

influences of the kimono and other national

idea. The Occident views the Orient as needing to

clothing in oriental countries can be found clearly

be represented, taught, interpreted and redeemed

in the works of designers such as Paul Poret, Janne

from its deplorable position, and revived to

Paquin or Madeleine Vionnet at the start of haute

modernity.

couture.

12

It is considered to be part of the

exoticism, called Japanism, that spread in the 19th

The biased perspective of Miyake as a ‘Japanese

century. The straight construction and the ease

designer’ can be reduced from the point of this

found in oriental native dresses were adapted to

concept of Orientalism. According to Richard

western dresses under the pressure to release

Martin and Harold Coda, Japan, as required by the

women from corsets. And the motives or

West, had been an object of exoticism symbolized

techniques used in traditional Japanese textiles

in kabuki, ukiyoe and samurai till the 1970s, and

were applied to European textiles. However, this

changed to an object that gave secular boisterous

extension of the dresses under the influence of

western culture some spiritual serenity in the latter

Japanism was only for the middle and high classes,

half of the 1990s. 15 Though they have a high

and only for a few items such as dresses or gowns.

opinion of Japanese designers, this opinion is filled with the typical idea and the Orientalism concept

At the same time, Japanese people gradually began

that Japan serves the West. In fact, many Japanese

to dress in western clothing. Kipling, as mentioned

designers

above, visited Japan twice at the end of the 19th

Yamamoto have presented their collections in

century when he was a journalist. In his records at

Paris and in other cities all over the world. But

that time, he asked why Japanese people wore

designers who don’t come under the banner of

western clothes that were unsuitable to their

typical Japanese designers or agree with them are

physiques instead of the kimono, he thought that

removed, and only a few are approved as designers

Japanese people would soon recognize this and

who can bring useful or novel stimuli to western

eventually stop wearing western clothes.

13

Though

except

Miyake,

Kawakubo

and

fashion.

the West didn't meet the East in Kipling, in the modern fashion industry the situation is such that

In Said, the structure of Orientalism is not merely

the West alone does not keep Japanese culture

the binary opposition of the West and the East. In

under its control.

this style of thought, the Orient differs from the


40


Hiramitsu

West or contradicts it, and should be taken onto the

different from itself, in addition to mimicking its

western side. Miyake set out to become a fashion

culture and introducing its values. In the modern

designer influenced by fashion magazines such as

fashion industry, Miyake has kept the binal parts of

‘American Vogue’ or ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ in his

mimicking the West and of being apart from the

boyhood. After the last war, people in Japan

West while, at the same time, being a ‘Japanese

rushed to wear western clothes with the progress of

designer.’

westernization and Americanization. On the other hand, Japanese culture embodied in the kimono rapidly declined. Therefore, when Miyake began to notice Japanese traditions just after he came back

Conclusion

to Japan, it was not a rediscovery inside him but a new discovery from a fresh perspective. In the

At the end of the 19th century, the western mode

same way as the West, he discovered the

had become superior to most national costumes all

traditional cultures of Japan or other oriental

over the world under the government of the

countries, gave them redemption and revived them

imperialists. In practical terms, the West also lost

in contemporary fashion.

its own clothing aesthetics at the same time. Especially, some traditional decoration techniques

He presented his collection under the title of ‘Body

of western clothes barely survived the adjustment

Works’ in which he dealt with various materials

to industrial production. Bruno du Roselle pointed

besides fabric such as iron, paper and bamboo.

out that western clothing, since World WarϨ, ‘has

Some of these works show Japanism that is

been one of the most desolate and least brilliant

different from previous works. In particular, the

modes, furthermore the least imaginative and

one named ‘Rattan Body’ looks like a samurai

creative modes.’ 16 The worldwide unification of

costume with a pleated skirt. Including this in a

the clothing mode has created the various desires

few

more

and necessities for the self-expression of the

Japanesque impressions than all the other works of

wearers. In the recent fashion industry, the

Miyake put together. In those days, he tried to

products, the capital and the talent have been

build up his position by playing voluntarily his

reorganized on a world scale, and the new markets

‘Japanese’ role, while doubting the prejudice of the

are eagerly being cultivated in response to

‘Japanese designers.’ His works on oriental

international economies. The creativity of the

countries except Japan can be explained by such

designers cannot lead the uniformed mode in one

style in Orientalism. Western Orientalism was

direction by itself. Although depending on the

fully imported to Japan and still exists in the

individual creations of the designers is originally a

present day. For all the refutations and criticisms

very western way, special to haute couture, it is

of Orientalism, it is supposed that it has infiltrated

regarded as a dressmaking laboratory and just

throughout most Japanese people and is commonly

manages to survive with the selling of licensed

held as a style of thought. Miyake mimicked the

contracts.

pieces

in

‘Body

Works’

made

West in trying to create universal clothing. Above this, the contradiction that Miyake has taken can be

Miyake said that if there were something left for

restored to its original structure consisting of the

the designer to do as a creator, it would be to

rule and the ruled, the West and the East. The West

incorporate poesy, and that the creators of the next

as the rule requires the East to continue to be

generation had to have sufficient imagination to


41


Hiramitsu

control the technology. When Miyake aimed at universal clothing such as T-shirts and jeans, he aimed to present a little imagination to individuals of the masses, while recognizing the fact that the mode is rather unified had taken root. It is supposed that he has been trying to confront, not

12

Fukai, Akiko. (1994), Japonism in Fashion, Tokyo: Heibonsha 13

Kipling, Rudyard .(1908), From Sea to Sea vol.1 p349, Tokyo: Macmillan 14

the invention or the ideal, but the reality in his

Said, Edward .W (1985), Orientalism, Tokyo: Penguin Books

fight for traditional Japanese fabrics.

15

Endnotes

Martin, Richard. Coda, Harold. (1996), The Contemporary Fashion and Japonism, tr. Uegaito, Kenichi "Japonism in Fashion," pp. 28-31, Tokyo 16

1

Japanese fabric woven out of high twist yarns with fine crinkles on the surface.

du Roselle, Bruno. (1995), LA MODE, tr. Nishimura, Aiko. Tokyo: Heibonsha

2

Japanese hand-woven fabric made from yarns of uneven thickness, manually spun from silk. 3

A method of resist dyeing in which the required design is securely tied or stitched onto the fabric before dyeing. 4

A weaving method with supplementary weft patterns in thick, glossy silk or gold or silver thread, appearing much like embroidery. 5

Larsen, Jack. (1988) Fabric designs on Makiko Minagawa, Makiko Minagawa "TEXTURE," Tokyo: Kodansha 6

A term widely used in Japanese traditional arts to designate an artistically placed interval in time or space. 7

A steeplejack.

8

A worker who pulls a rickshaw .

9

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Miyake, Issey. (1975), Staring at the Evidences of Time,

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Fukai, Akiko. (1994), Japonism in Fashion, Tokyo: Heibonsha 11

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1986.HAATH,Hand woven Textiles in India and Issey Miyake,Seibu Museum of Art,Tokyo 1991,Japonism in Fashion:Japan dresses the West,Brooklyn Museum of Art,

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Hiramitsu

Brooklyn 1994, Orientalism:Visions of the East in Western Dress ,The Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York 1996,Japonisme in Fashion ,Kyoto Costume Institute edt, Tokyo 2001,Made in Japan The Latest Fashion de Nieuwste Mode ,Uitgever centraal Museum


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Japanese Tradition in Isssey Miyake - Design History Forum

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