Japanese Fashion examines the entire sweep of Japanese clothing history, from the sophisticated fashion systems of late-Edo period kimonos to the present day, providing possible theories of how Japan made this fashion journey and linking current theories of fashion to the Japanese example. The book is unique in that it provides the first full history of the last 200 years of Japanese clothing. It is also the first book to include Asian fashion as part of global fashion as well as fashion theory. It adds a hitherto absent continuity to the understanding of historical and current fashion in Japan, and is pioneering in offering possible theories to account for that entire history. By providing an analysis of how that entire history changes our understanding of the way fashion works, this book will be an essential text for all students of fashion and design.
1. Introduction: Modernity, Fashion and Japan Modernity and Modernity in Clothing Global Fashion and National Cultures Japan 2. Japanese Clothes 1800-2000 Clothing in the Edo Period Nakedness and Covering It Decency Foundation Choices: Yoga and Nihonga Materials and Materialism 'Westernisation' and Japanese Fashion Textile Industrialisation The Democratisation of Consumption World War II The Rise of Designers Today's Subcultures 3. Japanese Menswear: Masculinity and Sartorial Statecraft Uniforms and the State: The Emperor's New Clothes Suits: Modern and Classic Masculinity The Suit in Europe and America The Growing Civilised Centre The Japanese Suit The Rokumeikan Modern Boys Possible Masculinities post 2000 4. Japanese Womenswear: Femininity and Modernity Traditional Notions of Sartorial Womanhood Meiji Girl Students and School Uniforms Taisho Decadence and the Moga Sportswear, Swimwear & Movement Cosmetics and Substance Hairstyles: The First Experiments Kimono Reform and Traditional Identity Feminine Formality and Time 1960s Counter Culture in Japan Japanese Femininity Today 5. Conclusions: Theories of Japanese Fashion The Economics of Aesthetics A Set of Reoccurring Questions Functional Explanations Fashion as the Search for Meaning and/or Identity Fashion and the Struggle for Status The Economics of Fashion Fashion as Communication Dynamic Explanations of Fashion Fashion as Diffusion Cycles of Fashion Fashion as Erotic Fashion and the Zeitgeist Fashion as Aesthetics Acknowledgements Bibliography
