“These three avant-garde designers have become an international ...

1 For a summary of the press reviews documenting Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo’s Paris
debut, see Pamela Golbin, “Constat d’état ou flashback sur le paysage de la mode parisienne,” in
XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, 29-35.
2 Certain scholars place Issey Miyake with Kenzo Takada in the first so-called wave in the late
1960s and early 1970s (Patricia Mears, “Être japonais: une question d’identité,” in XXIèmeCiel: Mode
in Japan, 40) or as the “founding father” of the second wave (Yuniya Kawamura, “La révolution
japonaise dans la mode parisienne,” in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, 47). Designers of the newer
generation have included Jun Takahashi, Hiroaki Ohya, Kosuke Tsumara, Masahiro Nakagawa, Naoki
Takizawa, Kansai Yamamoto, Junko Koshino, Takao Ikeda, and Mitsuhiro Matsuda.
3 Janie Samet, Le Figaro, October 21, 1982, my translation, cited in Akiko Fukai, “Le Japon et la
mode,” in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, 22.
4 Patricia Mears notes: “They are widely regarded as creative artists by art critics and museum
curators, and their work has been enthusiastically collected and incorporated work into innovative art
and design exhibitions.” (“Exhibiting Asia: The Global Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and
Galleries,” Fashion Theory 12, 96).
5 Huckbody, “Interviews: conversations with some of the most brilliant minds in fashion. Yohji
Yamamoto,” Harper’s Bazaar.
6 Yohji Yamamoto cited in “Clothes in rebellion,” The Japanese Times Weekly.
7 Barbara Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System, 72.
8 Yohji Yamamoto, in Baudot, Yohji Yamamoto, 11.
9 Sarah Braddock Clarke similarly notes: “Form is a major consideration and recurring dilemma –
what shape should emerge from a particular cloth? Working in a way not unlike a sculptor he builds
and takes away to refine the shape, draping and cutting the fabric, observing the way it falls and catches
the light.” (“River deep, mountain high: Yohji Yamamoto continues his fashion journey,” Selvedge,
41.)
10 Baudot, Yohji Yamamoto, 6.
11 Milenovich, Kimonos, 7. Sarah Braddock Clarke adds: “It is an indefinable character, a certain
feeling, that sets Yohji Yamamoto apart from other designers – he appears to understand how we relate
to our clothing and what we wish to communicate in their wearing.” (“River deep, mountain high:
Yohji Yamamoto continues his fashion journey,” Selvedge, 40.)
12 Baudot, Yohji Yamamoto, 12.
13 Mears, “Révolutionnaires: Rei Kawakubo et Yohji Yamamoto,” in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan,
68.
14 Yohji Yamamoto, “May I help you,” in Talking to Myself vol. 1 (n.p).
15 Yuniya Kawamura, The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion, 143.
16 Ginette Sainderichin, “Éditorial: Le bonze et la kamikaze,” Jardin des modes, December 1982, 5,
cited in Pamela Golbin, “Constat d’état ou flashback sur le paysage de la mode parisienne,” my
translation, in XXIèmeCiel: Mode in Japan, 29.
17 Hildreth, A New Wave in Fashion: Three Japanese Designers, 40. The author contextualizes
them in the history of fashion “revolutions” along with Poiret’s hobble skirt and Dior’s “New Look.”
18 This term is used by the Powerhouse Museum in “Teachers’ Exhibition Notes, The Cutting Edge:
Fashion from Japan,” 2.
19 For different approaches to Japanese and Western design, see Richard Martin, “Our Kimono
Mind: Reflections on Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950” Journal of Design History, 219.
20 Jean Hildreth notes: “Known for his innovative fabrics, Yohji has them treated and prepared
using traditional methods such as “stone washing,” and also rinsing bolts of cotton in the Nagoro River
near his factory in Gifu.” (A New Wave in Fashion, 44.)
21 “Upcoming Exhibitions. ‘Contemporary Japanese Fashion: the Mary Baskett Collection,’” The
Textile Museum,