Fashion I-II. [antikvár]

Foreworc Akiko Fukai, Chief Curator, The Kyoto Costume Institute This book consists of five hundred photographs of items of clothing selected from the extensive collections at the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI). Since its inception in 1978, the KCI has held exhibitions around the world as a way of organizing research on Western fashion. The exhibitions and the catalogues that have accompanied them have met with acclaim from international audiences and by cutting-edge designers from all over the world. Part of the recognition the KCI has received stems from its policy of displaying articles of clothing in a manner that is both academically accurate and true to life. In other words, the KCI presents clothing not just as historical artifacts, but also as vital elements of fashion. The exhibitions capture the elegance and charm that the clothing had in its day, as though simply having been "awakened" after a long "sleep." The KCI hopes that this publication, which covers selected historical clothing and fashion accessories from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, will enable an ever-wider audience to appreciate the wonder and pleasure of fashion. THE KYOTO COSTUME INSTITUTE The Kyoto Costume Institute was established in 1978, in the wake of the first full-scale exhibition of fashion in Japan, "Inventive Clothes, 1909-1939," a show that originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Greatly fascinated by the exhibition, Koichi Tsukamoto, the president of the Wacoal Corporation, one of Japan's top lingerie makers, and vice president of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the time, perceived the need for an institution in Japan where Western fashion could be systematically collected, researched, and exhibited. Under a charter issued by the Japanese Goverrmient Agency for Cukural Affairs, Tsukamoto founded the Kyoto Costume Institute in April 1978. The Kyoto Costume Institute strives to achieve an essential understanding of clothing and devise a method of predicting how fashion will evolve in the fiiture. The KCI recognizes that clothing expresses basic human feelings, and that the expression of such feelings changes over time. It is fitting, then, that Yoshikata Tsukamoto, the current president of Wacoal and acting chairman of the KCI, is following in his fathers footsteps to assist the institute in its pursuits. From its earliest days, the KCI has focused its activities on enriching its superb costume collections, and on planning exhibitions based on interpretations of these collections. To date the collection comprises over 10,000 costume items, and more than 20,000 printed documents. Costume materials consist primarily of Western clothing and related items such as underpinnings, lingerie, and accessories. Undergarments make up a particularly comprehensive part of the collection, as the KCI believes that lingerie evokes an essential characteristic of costume history in the West. Related printed matter provides important reference to further examine the history and social background of Western clothing. The collection ranges from the early seventeenth century to the present and encompasses rare treasures such as a seventeenth-century iron corset with embroidered bodice, worn in Elizabethan times and later.