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A review by roxanamalinachirila
Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute - A History from the 18th to the 20th Century by Akiko Fukai
4.0
Hey, look at the smaller print before the title on the cover of this book - "The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute". Put a pin in it, because we'll come back to it in a second.
This book was published by Taschen, who specialize in art books, and it shows. It's beautiful, and they paid great care to make it wonderful to hold and browse.
Here's a picture! (It's from the larger edition of the book - I have a smaller one, but it's lovely, too.)
It's a pleasure to see Western fashion evolve from the first half of the 18th century up until today, to see close-ups of various pieces, and admire intricate embroidery. You can see shapes and styles changing over time, going from wide skirts that make you feel doors must have been larger back in the day, to simple dresses with incredibly high waistlines, to complicated fashions where behinds were so exaggerated that we'd be hard pressed to find them attractive nowadays, before slowly coming into the 20th century and reaching fashions we might still wear today.
But while it takes you on a wonderful journey through the ages, it's good to keep in mind it showcases one museum's collection, and not a comprehensive history of fashion. You get lovely explanations about developments, materials used, and inspiration, but they follow the collection at hand. Which absolutely makes sense, by the way, and I'm not complaining, but it's a thing to keep in mind, because this is a Japanese collection, albeit of mostly Western fashion, with a focus on women's clothes. As such, we get to find out more than we normally would about Japanese influences in the West, which is fascinating.
But this is mostly about higher fashion, upper classes, and later designer clothes, rather than the everyday clothes of lower classes, which starts sticking out in the section dedicated to the 20th century, especially the second half of it. Clothes become more and more experimental, and eventually lose all relation to what we know was actually worn at the time. We step into a world of experimenting with shapes and fabrics, in which you can build a dress out of wood, or out of metal and wires, or even paper. Creations start being statements rather than actual clothes.
This isn't bad, but it is a reminder that the scene of fashion is very different from what it used to be, and also that novelty and experimentation seem to drive what happens on catwalks, while real people move in a different direction entirely.
It's also fascinating to see Japan make its own statement regarding Western and global fashion. It's a Japan-centric view of the West, and it's worth checking out.
This book was published by Taschen, who specialize in art books, and it shows. It's beautiful, and they paid great care to make it wonderful to hold and browse.
Here's a picture! (It's from the larger edition of the book - I have a smaller one, but it's lovely, too.)
It's a pleasure to see Western fashion evolve from the first half of the 18th century up until today, to see close-ups of various pieces, and admire intricate embroidery. You can see shapes and styles changing over time, going from wide skirts that make you feel doors must have been larger back in the day, to simple dresses with incredibly high waistlines, to complicated fashions where behinds were so exaggerated that we'd be hard pressed to find them attractive nowadays, before slowly coming into the 20th century and reaching fashions we might still wear today.
But while it takes you on a wonderful journey through the ages, it's good to keep in mind it showcases one museum's collection, and not a comprehensive history of fashion. You get lovely explanations about developments, materials used, and inspiration, but they follow the collection at hand. Which absolutely makes sense, by the way, and I'm not complaining, but it's a thing to keep in mind, because this is a Japanese collection, albeit of mostly Western fashion, with a focus on women's clothes. As such, we get to find out more than we normally would about Japanese influences in the West, which is fascinating.
But this is mostly about higher fashion, upper classes, and later designer clothes, rather than the everyday clothes of lower classes, which starts sticking out in the section dedicated to the 20th century, especially the second half of it. Clothes become more and more experimental, and eventually lose all relation to what we know was actually worn at the time. We step into a world of experimenting with shapes and fabrics, in which you can build a dress out of wood, or out of metal and wires, or even paper. Creations start being statements rather than actual clothes.
This isn't bad, but it is a reminder that the scene of fashion is very different from what it used to be, and also that novelty and experimentation seem to drive what happens on catwalks, while real people move in a different direction entirely.
It's also fascinating to see Japan make its own statement regarding Western and global fashion. It's a Japan-centric view of the West, and it's worth checking out.