Fashion goes back to the future Japanese style

RHEA ANTHONY and NATASHA HOPPNER

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion | Image: Robert Shakespeare
Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion. Photo: Robert Shakespeare

Thirty years of innovative and dynamic Japanese avant-garde fashion designs are now on show for the Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA).

The exhibition celebrates Japanese fashion, showcasing modernistic, ostentatious, and revolutionary pieces that only the truly bold would dare to wear.

Future Beauty explores the profound impact and lasting impression innovative designers like Jun Takahashi, Kunihiko Morinaga, and Yohji Yamamoto have had on contemporary fashion.

The collection, curated by Japanese fashion historian Akiko Fukai, took pieces from the esteemed Kyoto Costume Institute to showcase just how much Japanese fashion pushed and challenged the boundaries in couture compared with its Western and European counterparts of the time.

Transcending the barriers of time, the exhibition gives Queensland residents the chance to immerse themselves in a different realm of Japanese culture.

Future Beauty's runway | Image: Hayley Hughes
Future Beauty’s runway. Photo: Hayley Hughes

Future Beauty transports its audience to a fascinating version of a fashion-week runway show.

It opens with pieces from the very first time designers Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto shared their kooky designs with Europeans.

As fashion lovers move through the exhibition they can view video footage of the garments being modeled on fashion runways, illustrating what the designs meant in their heyday.

Reinvented Kimono's at Future Beauty | Image: Hayley Hughes
Reinvented Kimono’s at Future Beauty. Photo: Hayley Hughes

The themes explored throughout this striking exhibition include monochromatic minimalism, reinvented kimono styles, street-inspired fashion (Harajuku), and avant-garde – all of which examine the distinct aesthetics and vivacity Japanese fashion incorporates.

 

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion reopens at GOMA after the G20 Summit weekend on Monday November 14.

For further information and ticketing, click here.

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