Ms Bonnie English
Bonnie is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Art Theory department. Her research focus deals with the inter relationship of fashion and art. She has won an international multi-media teaching and Learning award for her CD-ROM entitled' Fashion & Art' based on 18th Century portrait paintings from the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and co-curated the first major fashion exhibition, 'Tokyo Vogue' (1999) that was held in Queensland at the Brisbane City Hall Gallery.
The Aesthetics of Poverty: Contemporary Japanese Fashion Design
The work of Yohji Yamamoto (YY) and Rei Kawakubo (Comme Des Garcons) has had an undeniable impact upon western fashion since the 1980s. Yet these designers have critiqued, and even insulted, western haute couture traditions. In their postmodernist design work, they celebrate their cultural heritage quietly in conceptual terms, whilst blatantly denying any phalleocentric notions of glamour, sexuality or gender. They besieged the industry with their unconventional fashions and their work was described as being 'uncompromising' and 'uncategorisable'. My paper will consider the cultural differences, aesthetic anomalies and anti-western sensibilities that have driven the practice of these Japanese designers. Arguably, gender and aesthetic issues underpin the transformation of international fashion over the past twenty years and the oppositional forces, evident in both Yamamoto and Kawakubo's work, have contributed to the notion that fashion has finally become something more than just a second skin.
Top of page
