It’s All in the Fold: An Historical, Transnational and Material Investigation to Understand the 2010’s Kimono Jacket Trend

Abstract

This article investigates a fashion trend during the first half of the 2010’s for a garment that looked little like the indigenous kimono, was often designed and manufactured in centers other than Japan and was largely intended for consumption outside of Japan, but none-the-less was marketed as kimono. Rather than reflecting on the ways in which this trend could be viewed as another example of cultural appropriation in the fashion industry or demonstrative of the fashion industry’s attempt to maximize profit by flooding the market with endless variations of these garments that resonate rather tired Orientalized stereotypes, this article examines how the ways in which the kimono has been transformed as it moves through time and across borders resonate with this trend and seeks to better understand the political, social, cultural and economic drivers behind such transformations. It also brings to light new developments in this garment’s cultural meanings.

Keywords:

• kimono
• bohemian
• boho chic
• kimono jacket
• festival fashion
• drapery
• fringe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 These included Abercrombie and Fitch, Anthropologie, Free People, Gap, H&M, Hollister, Marks & Spencer, Miss Selfridge, Monsoon, River Island, Top Shop, Urban Outfitters, Cleobella, She Vamps and Phraseology.

2 For example, see Eicher 1999; Paulicelli and Clark 2009; Jansen and Craik 2016.

3 For example, see Welters and Lillethun 2018; Cheang and Kramer 2017; Research Collective Decolonising Fashion at www.rcdfashion.com.

4 This exhibition was organized by the Kyoto Costume Institute and was exhibited at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (1994); Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Paris (1996); TFT Hall, Tokyo (1996); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1998); Brooklyn Museum of Art (1998–1999); Museum of New Zealand, Wellington (2003); Christchurch Art Gallery (2003–2004).

5 Refashioning Kimono was co-organized by the Kyoto Costume Institute and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and appeared at Newark Museum (13 October 2018–6 January 2019), Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (8 February–5 May 2019) and Cincinnati Art Museum (28 June–15 September 2019).

6 This exhibition was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, opening 29 February 2020.

7 See for example Rakuten Global Market at http://global.rakuten.com/en/ and Kimono Flea Market Ichiroyan at http://www.ichiroya.com/ as well as Nanao editors 2011; Okazaki 2015; Cliffe 2017.

8 See Kramer (2013, 14–15).

9 See Kramer (2009) for a discussion of the meanings of Japanese textiles, including kimono in Victorian British homes.

10 Phraseology is now defunct.

11 These include the Free People Cocoon Jacket, Free People Sammy Raw Edge Kimono, Maize Long Cape, and Jun Tassel Kimono (see Figure 2).

12 See New Look Group (2015) for statistics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Kramer

Elizabeth Kramer is a Senior Lecturer of Design History at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She is interested in how the materiality of garments can be used to understand cultural flows and transcultural identities, and is currently focusing on the fashionable kimono and sukajan. This builds upon her research expertise of Anglo-Japanese cultural exchange in relation to textile design, manufacture and consumption in the 19th century. [email protected]