Re-Fashioning Kimono: How to Make 'Traditional' Clothes for Postmodern Japan

Abstract

It is diffi cult to ride a bicycle or drive a car while wearing a kimono. Kimono are not considered suitable for contemporary life in Japan, and because of this, there is a pervading view that the Japanese traditional textile industry is in decline. However, Japanese designers and consumers are redefi ning Japanese clothing (wafuku) while retaining its 'traditional' image. Th is project investigates how the contemporary reinvention of Japanese clothing embodies the process by which tradition and modernity interact, and helps us understand how new designs are a vehicle for designers' and consumers' expressions of Japanese culture.