Fashioning Kimono

Fashioning Kimono focuses on 150 Japanese garments dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, taken from the renowned Montgomery Collection, which includes informal women`s and men`s kimono, haori jackets, under-garments, ceremonial/formal clothes, and children`s robes. Some of the designs reflect historical continuity, but many others evince a radical break from the traditional. Themes and designs from Western art predominate over historical Japanese references, illustrating the modernisation and Westernisation of Japan at this time. The range of the collection represents one of the most dynamic periods in Japan`s national costume. It encompasses the final phase of the living kimono - when kimono was still the daily wear of most Japanese people. After Japan`s defeat in the Pacific War and the destruction of virtually all it`s major urban centres, Western clothes quickly came to replace the kimono, being considered more affordable and conducive to the new post-war lifestyle. It eventually took on a purely ceremonial or formal role, and today - except for the few fashionably daring - the kimono is worn mainly for the tea ceremony, funerals, and weddings.