Object: Dress
Designer:
Yoshiki Hishinuma
(born 1958)
Manufacturer:
Hishinuma Associates Co. LTD
Date: Fall 1999-2000
Medium: Black sheer polyester/polyurethane
Country: Japan
Credit Line: Gift of Hishinuma Associates Co., Ltd.
Object number: 2001.52.4
DescriptionLong asymmetrical tube dress in black sheer polyester / polyurethane stretch with irregular creased 3D points and rubberized areas coated with enamel film; fabric shrunk and creased through heat process for crimped texture and volume; high built up neck, short kimono sleeves; hand made, sample
Label Text:Yoshiki Hishinuma is known for his textile innovations. This asymmetrical tube dress, for example, is made of sheer black polyester with irregularly creased three-dimensional points and "rubberized" areas bonded with polyurethane. The fabric has been deliberately shrunk and creased through a heat process that affects both the texture and the volume of the finished garment. For the past twenty years, black has been the ubiquitous avant-garde fashion color. Introduced in the 1980s by Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, the first mostly-black collections were greeted with horror by most of the international fashion press. At a time when European designers favored bright colors, the Japanese designers' obsession with black seemed ominous and depressing. Very soon, however, black was assimilated into the wardrobes of intellectuals and fashionistas alike. Obviously, the shock of black had long since faded by the time Hishinuma created this dress in 1999-2000. Yet he succeeds in renewing its appearance through the juxtaposition of rubberized and sheer surface textures.
Exhibitions:
- Reinvention and Restlessness: Fashion in the Nineties
- Fashion and Technology
- Form Follows Fashion