In 1981, designers Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto flew from Tokyo to France and showcased ‘la mode Japonaise’ for the first time to a Western audience, and catwalks have been turning Japanese ever since.Īgainst the opulent glamour of the 1980s, with its Armani power suits on Wall Street and Versace-clad socialites, Kawakubo’s unique brand of Japanese fashion, with its distressed fabrics and unfinished seams, challenged the fashion status quo. Just over a century later, the West’s most impenetrable fashion capital Paris would open its doors to the Japanese. In 1854, after centuries of isolation from foreign influence, Japan opened its doors to the West after witnessing the awesome firepower of the American naval fleet at the hands of Commodore Matthew C.
