Thursday 10 February 2011

why don't you be the artist

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion.

So a group of us visited the Barbican last friday as part of our course, we went to see an exhibition that is basically the first exhibition in Europe to meticulously survey avant-garde Japanese fashion; back from the 1980's up until today.

Some exhibitions can be tedious in the sense that walking around them takes alot of mental affort and after twenty minutes looking at clothing it can feel like twenty hours.

This however was nothing like that sort of experience; the general ambience was quite calming on the bottom floor, cream draped linen hung from the ceiling so that when walking around you couldn’t quite see the manikins until you walked through the curtains.

The lighting was generally quite dim to compliment the calming music and give and overall sense of serenity, it made looking at the clothing a lot easier as i felt more inclined to pay attention without feeling like it was taking a lot of effort.

Upstairs had a slightly different feel to it, instead of the cream curtain there were separate sections and the clothing was alot more upbeat and modern with the use of mirrors and projected videos echoing the modern feel.

Curated by the well renowned Japanese fashion historian Akiko Fukai , Director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, the display explores the ‘unique sensibility of Japanese design, and its sense of beauty embodied in clothing’.
It features iconic designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, who have been celebrated for their redefining designs and together will the ‘acclaimed’ Jun Takahashi and the ‘new generation of radical designers’ Tao Kurihara, Akira Naka and Mint Designs the mix made for interesting viewing.

The exhibition has now ended, but if you fancy looking at some photographs or a video from it check out the website by pasting this address into your tool bar.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=10771

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