Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

The 'Future Beauty' exhibition focuses on Japanese fashion, its creativity and the cultural background of its powerful design.

With the development of the Japanese economy during the latter half of the twentieth century, Japanese fashion entered the world stage, where it was recognized for its uniqueness. Starting with Kenzo Takada in 1970　and Issey Miyake, then followed in the eighties by Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, the activities of these designers were to enlarge the possibilities presented by fashion, throwing open the door of creativity to the world, in a field that had previously been confined to the framework of Western aesthetics.

They continued to create a free, imaginative style, drawing the eyes of the world towards Japan as a 'cool place' that offered new interpretations of the meaning of clothing. What is the essence and strength of Japanese fashion and how will our relationship with clothes change? These are the issues that we would like to look at afresh in 2012.

This exhibition was originally held at the Barbican Art Gallery (London) in 2010, then the Haus der Kunst (Munich) in 2011, where it was extremely well received. In addition to the work shown overseas, the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will also include a section entitled 'Virtuality and Reality', presenting the work of young fashion designers to provide a hint of the future direction of fashion. From the 'deconstruction and innovation' of the eighties, through the 'expressions of the nineties generation, who considered "attitude" a life concept', to the '"sympathetic" generation' of the first decade of the new century 'whose designs were based on daily "behavior"', such as eating, sleeping and talking with friends. By looking back over the last thirty years of change, we hope to catch a glimpse of the futurity of Japanese fashion.