Bridging Traditions and Innovations in Japanese Kimono Fashion -After WWII to the Present-

Authors

Keiko Okamoto, Hosei UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

2024

Document Type

Presentation

Citation

Textile Society of America 2024 Symposium

Shifts & Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, November 12-17, 2024, a virtual event

Comments

Published by the Textiles Society of America

Copyright 2024, the author. Used by permission

Abstract

After the Meiji Restoration (1868 - ), there were three major Westernization periods in Japanese clothing history. The first was the period when Japan re-opened its ports to the West, the second was when the Great Kanto Earthquake hit eastern Japan (1912). During the first and the second periods, Western style clothing was added to the existing upper- to mid-class kimono culture. The third period was post-World War II period when the Japanese lost most of their clothing during the war as they were burnt in bombings, bartered for foods, or forced to alter the shape.

This presentation will focus on two Japanese designers who emerged in the third period, after World War II. One is Sueko Otsuka (1902-1998), a New- Kimono designer who incorporated Western clothing features into the kimono in the 1950s, and the other is Yumi Katsura (1932- ), a wedding dress designer, who brought kimono essence into her dresses in the 1960s. Their designs were not like the kimono of the past or Western-style dresses of the time. As time went through the 1970s and 1980s, the kimono and dresses took different paths reaching their respective goals either as “kimono” or as “dress.” In the Reiwa period (2020 - ), the paths of the kimono and dress are merging again. Otsuka’s New-Kimono concept is revisited, while Katsura introduces new types of kimono wedding gowns and Western-style dresses using kimono textiles. Japanese women now enjoy wearing these fashionable clothing originated in Japan.