The convergence of Western and Eastern aesthetics can, arguably, be seen nowhere more viscerally than in Japanese dress.

Retaining the self-determination of a monoculture while escalating cultural trade with Northern Europe, Japan’s transformation across the last century has seen the nation’s cultural milieu embrace the unique, avant-garde and experimental.

Akiko Fukai, Founding Curator and now Curator Emeritus of the Kyoto Costume Institute, has lead the way in documenting and exhibiting artefacts of Japan’s exhilarating fashion evolution. For more than 40 years, Fukai has helmed landmark retrospectives and exhibitions, many of which continue to travel worldwide.

Fukai joins SCCI as a Fashion Hub 2020 VIP international guest, presenting a keynote exploring the relationship between tradition and innovation in Japanese fashion throughout history. With a particular focus on designs produced in Japan since the 1980s, Fukai’s keynote dives deep into her 2010 traveling exhibition Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion.

The exhibition was the first comprehensive survey of Japanese avant-garde fashion designers from 1980-onwards, focusing on contributions to contemporary fashion from Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Junya Watanabe, among others. The exhibition travelled extensively from its inaugural opening at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, eventually arriving in Australia at the Brisbane Museum in 2014.

This event is presented in partnership with Sydney Living Museums.

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