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Posts Tagged ‘FIT’
[photo] Tokyo Fashion Festa 2 (Cosplay & Make-up) @ FIT NYC
Friday, February 18th, 2011 by Kathy Chee[press release] Japan Fashion Now @ The Museum at FIT NYC
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Kathy CheeJAPAN FASHION NOW
On View at The Museum at FIT in New York City
September 17, 2010-January 8, 2011
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) presents Japan Fashion Now, the first exhibition to explore contemporary Japanese fashion in all its radical creativity, from avant-garde high fashion to street and subcultural styles, from menswear to new designers. Approximately 100 ensembles will be on display, some two dozen in an introductory gallery devoted to the Japanese “fashion revolution” of the 1980s, and the rest in a dramatic mise-en-scène evoking the iconic cityscape of 21st-century Tokyo.
Featured designers include Jun Takahashi of Undercover (described by journalist Suzy Menkes as “the essence of Japanese cool”), Hirooka Naoto (the designer behind h.NAOTO, Japan’s most successful Gothic-Punk-Lolita fashion empire, who has said, “I aim to be the most extreme and scandalous brand in the world”), and menswear designer Takeshi Osumi of Phenomenon (who just presented his first spectacular runway collection in Tokyo).
Previous museum exhibitions have focused on the first generation of avant-garde designers who came to prominence in the 1980s: Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto. Japan Fashion Now acknowledges their historic contribution to global fashion but also moves beyond the first wave of Deconstruction to explore how dramatically Japanese fashion has changed over the past twenty years. Among the new Japanese designers featured are Chitose Abe of sacai, Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi of Matohu, and Hiroki Nakamura of visvim. Equally compelling is the range of Japanese street fashion — from the elegant and bizarre costumes called Kamikaze suits worn by members of Japan’s Speed Tribe to the hyper-cute outfits of the Princess Decoration Style. Also on display will be Japan’s iconic school uniforms, famous Lolita brands such as Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (featured in the cult movie Kamikaze Girls, and the latest Forest Girl looks. Idol singers Hangry and Angry will lend their own clothes by h.NAOTO.
“Japan continues to be on the cutting-edge — maybe even the bleeding edge— of fashion,” says museum director and exhibition curator, Dr. Valerie Steele. “However, Japanese fashion today embraces not only the cerebral, avant-garde looks associated with the first wave of Japanese design in the 1980s, but also a range of youth-oriented looks, such as Gothic Lolita and Forest Girl styles. Some of the best designers combine avant-garde and subcultural styles. Equally significant is the Japanese obsession (not too strong a word) with perfecting classic utilitarian garments, such as jeans and work wear.”
The exhibition was designed by Charles B. Froom, with assistance from Fred Dennis and Ken Nintzel, and graphic design by Adrian Kitzinger. Additional assistance was provided by C.J. Yeh, FIT assistant professor of Communication Design, and the FIT Media Design Club.
Japan Fashion Now has been generously sponsored by Yagi Tsusho Limited, a global marketing and merchandising company specializing in fashion that has been introducing excellent brands from Europe and the U.S. to the Japanese market for more than 60 years, MONCLER and MACKINTOSH among the most recent.
Book – 11/08/10 pub date, PB-with Flaps $39.95, ISBN: 9780300167276
A lavishly illustrated book, also called Japan Fashion Now, will be published by Yale University Press, with essays by Valerie Steele (“Is Japan Still the Future?”); Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at FIT (“Fashion Revolution”); Hiroshi Narumi, associate professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design (“Japanese Street Style”); and Dr. Yuniya Kawamura, associate professor of Sociology at FIT (“Japanese Fashion Subcultures”). Proceeds from the book go to the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Events
The exhibition will be accompanied by a wide range of public programs, including gallery tours and a Lolita tea party, all of which will be part of the museum’s Fashion Culture series. The Museum at FIT will hold its annual Fashion Symposium on November 4-5, 2010, on the subject of Japanese fashion. Internationally recognized scholars will speak on topics such as the significance of cuteness in Japanese culture, the schoolgirl uniform, and the spread of Gothic and Lolita fashions throughout East Asia. For a program of events, call 212 217.4585 or email museuminfo@fitnyc.edu.
Museum Hours
Tuesday-Friday – noon-8 pm
Saturday –10 am-5 pm
Closed Sunday, Monday, and legal holidays
Admission is free and open to the public.
Official Museum at FIT website – http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum
[lifestyle] Tokyo Fashion Festa NYC
Saturday, March 20th, 2010 by Kathy Chee
Written by Leisl Schrader
If Lolita were a college student, perhaps a Fashion Design major at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, the Tokyo Fashion Festa would be much like her senior thesis show. Her fanciful and innocent vision of fashion would express a great talent and imagination, as well as great potential for booming popularity.
The Festa, piggybacking onto NYC’s Fashion Week, was the first proper Lolita-themed fashion show outside of a convention (or the opening of “Baby, the Stars Shine Bright” store in San Francisco). Supporting the show were Sync Music Japan, a loose confederation of labels devoted to overseas promotion of Japanese artists, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, keen on promoting Japanese “music culture” and Lolita fashion overseas. Misako Aoki, the “kawaii ambassador” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the Festa her latest stop on a worldwide mission to promote Lolita that has so far spanned eight countries. The next day, she held a special meet and greet with fans at Tokyo Rebel, NYC’s first store dedicated exclusively to Japanese street fashion and Lolita brands.
Admission was free by reservation. Ticket reservations were first taken informally through email, and a second time through FIT’s website just two days before the event. Advertising seemed to be done exclusively over Facebook and Livejournal, sufficiently filling up the 750 person capacity of FIT’s HAFT auditorium.
Rock star brand “Baby, The Stars Shine Bright” started things off with a basic introduction to sweet Lolita styles. Frilled and layered jumpers and blouses, in white and only the palest of pink and blue, were paired with large hair bows and voluminous curls. “Angelic Pretty” did more than “Baby” to mix things up from the norm. Cyan and lavender were used alongside the usual white, pink, and sky blue. Some skirt designs even used glitter to enhance their graphic prints. All of the looks were paired with complementary purses (or bunnies, or magic scepters).
“MiELette Tautou” showed the most progressive direction of the Lolita brands, adopting elements of the natural Lolita and mori-kei trends. A new line debuting its first collection, the look is a far more subdued truer to actual Victorian era garments than the re-interpretive, over-the-top fantasy currently most prevalent. The bell shape curve is done away with, and skirts are long, either without curves or with a flared silhouette. Complimentary pieces included an empire waist cardigan and a cropped blazer.
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BTSSB offshoot line “Alice and the Pirates” was the one bastion for Gothic Lolita. Looks varied from the feminine red graphic-printed jumper and purple petticoat, to outright masculinity with red velvet knickers and matching puff-sleeved waistcoat with a miniature pork-pie hat. Peace Now brought the strongest image of classic Gothic elegance mixed with punk edge, with asymmetrical skirts, flowing petticoats in contrasting colors, and even shorts with thigh-high stockings. A small neck ruff made a strong impact as a uncommon piece directly drawn from historical fashions.
The “Madame Killer” line was created by Nichi Kashihara, one of the event’s organizers and the owner of a synonymous Soho boutique that imports Japanese fashions. Positioned as “gyaru,” the looks were more of a mix of NYC hipster and 1990s grunge. Tacked on at the end was the “hi-ho” line, inspired by the late and legendary X-Japan guitarist hide. Yukata and obi featuring bright colors and punk-styled prints, while a literal fusion of Japan and music, didn’t break any new ground, and didn’t quite fit alongside the event’s other lines.
Music and video was worked in with mixed effectiveness. Musical guests VY, composed of MOA on vocals and RIO on turntables, played a dark, techno pop-rock, and certainly dressed appropriately. Far less entertaining were two overly long commercial breaks from h.Naoto and Sync Music Japan. While the event production was not outright disruptive, flaws in lighting, transition timing, and an awkwardly unannounced show conclusion broke the magic at times.
Competing with big-name mainstream brands in the midst of New York City’s fashion week, it may be that our dear aspiring fashion star Lolita may not make it much farther than the small-time world of Japanese pop culture. There is, however, great potential for mainstream exposure in the “Japan Fashion Now” exhibit, coming this September at FIT. An event like the Tokyo Fashion Festa that shows the support of American fashion institutions, and of the Japanese music industry, may bring the big break she’s been hoping for.