Anna Jackson (1)

I was surprised (and delighted) to find the depth and breadth of history displayed in this book! Yet, while it covers many years and across the globe, it never forgets its central focus, giving it a cohesive and sensible feel.

I knew kimono are anything but a static garment, for all they are a very old tradition - I did not know how much they've changed in things like cut and layering, as well as patterns, colours, and methods of manufacture.

I also had no idea how early kimono began being a notable export (even if misidentified in their eventual destination countries) across Europe. The book nicely displayed the entire progression of this, and both the changes made to kimono for an export market and the changes that came to Japanese fashion along the same times (in kimono and out of them).

The majority of the book does focus on this history, complete with many photographs of surviving kimono, old paintings and prints, pattern books, and advertisements; also on the people that wore them and the differences in how different classes, professions, and people in different locations wore kimono.

It progresses through to more recent history and a range of interpretations, in Japan and around the world, focusing especially on celebrities and designers. (I had a bit of a moment flipping through Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Madonna, Björk, Katy Perry, Netta Barzilai, Kiryu, and Hatsune Miku within a few pages.)

The very end of the book focuses on the very modern, an array of designers, and I found some of them more interesting (and some more aggravating) than others. I suspect that's rather how the fashion world goes, however, and that section is very much focusing on modern fashion. (The end sections also sometimes go over the same thing repetitively; not unexpected, as each is written by a different author and they are covering a lot of the same recent history and referencing/drawing upon the same parts of history.)… (more)