🦞The surrealist joy that is the Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art exhibition at the V&A.
Elsa Schiaparelli has been an inspiration to designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier, Stephen Jones and Alexander McQueen since her launch in 1927. But she saw herself, first and foremost, as an artist, with fabric, shape and colour as her medium and collaborated and created with artists such as Dalí, Cocteau, Man Ray, Giacometti, and Marcel Vertès.
I’m very glad to report “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art” was a really good balance between archival garments from Elsa and a chance to view the incredible new couture led by creative director Daniel Roseberry (appointed creative director in 2019). I’m a big fan of Mr.Roseberry he’s kept the heart of Schiaparelli, honouring to Elsa’s celebrated love of Surrealism, while not being afraid to bring the house into the 21st century.
This isn’t so much a guide to fabric shopping in Japan, more of a show and tell. A gentle meander with me, if you will.
Purple Kimono In The National Museum, Tokyo
As you can imagine, we saw some beautiful textiles, they kind of just appeared as we were wandering about. I didn’t take photos of everything. It feels a little intrusive in some cases, especially when a person is just going about their daily life. Not everything is to be photographed with a social media strategy in mind (she says as if she has one). Somethings are supposed to just be quietly enjoyed.
But, I did promise to tell you about my visit to Tomato Fabrics, the famous fabric shop in Tokyo.
Nippori Fabric Town
Nippori Town is the fabric district in Tokyo and home to many fabric, haberdashery and button shops. We walked there from the Tokyo National Museum and it took about half an hour meandering along. If you are going to Japan it’s actually quite easy to find your way around. We decided to hire a WiFi box, which we pre-booked and collected from the airport on arrival. And you just pop it back in the post box as you are leaving. It meant we had WiFi everywhere, even at Mount Fuji. We used google translate & google maps to navigate, it even tells you which underground platform to stand on. Nothing is fool-proof but it was pretty good!
Anyway, back to fabric town …
We got there quite late in the day after a full day of sightseeing. We’d almost skipped it completely. We had only been in Japan 2 days and were still finding our bearings a little bit. And there had been an earthquake on the first night so all in all quite eventful! But we toddled off and found it. I’m so glad we did.
The short version is it lived up to the hype and was hyperventillatingly, gloriously, filled with 5 floors of fabric joy! You pay on each floor, so there is no need to carry the bolts up and down the stairs. I think it’s a ploy to make it easier to buy more fabric! There were actually about 3 or 4 Tomato shops along the street. I unselfishly took one for the sewing team and visited quite a few.
You don’t really need a step by step guide of navigating a fabric shop. We all have experience in that department. I will say, I’m actually very fussy about the fabric I buy. I am very happy to leave empty handed if nothing speaks to me.
It spoke. Well, more shouted.
I came away with 12 metres, which I happily carried around for 2 weeks. So my advice is save room and take a bag with you!
Mokuba Ribbons
While in Tokyo, we also visited the Mokuba showroom. Mokuba are the designers of the most beautiful Japanese ribbons. If you ever wondered where the Couturiers and Designers get those beautiful trims and ribbons from – this is the place. Richard has been obsessed with these ribbons ever since he found them in our Kleins Deadstock Haul.
Kyoto
We did happen across a costume museum in Kyoto (not The Costume Institute which would have been a really good one to go to!) when we were actually looking for a castle in completely the opposite direction. The Costume Museum was a series of 1/4 scale accurate dioramas depicting tales from 400 years ago. The level of detail was truly astonishing. There were also some glorious (full sized) Kimonos like this green & orange one. I hadn’t realised there could be so many layers to a Kimono. They had up to 12 layers, with the matching and toning colours visible at the sleeve and neck.
Once you start looking …
We found that textiles just found us as we meandered about. From the rope textile display that drew us into a building. I mean turns out it was actually an office block that we just had a little wander around. Hey-ho!
We came across street art. A gallery with a huge window full with a piece made of used tea bags in Hiroshima. Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the artist. A Kimono forest. And of course actual beautiful Kimonos.
There is still so much that we didn’t see. I’d like to see an Indigo Dye Studio or farm and we didn’t even begin to explore Denim in Japan. But it’s nice to think we might get to go back again.
So we are back from a wonderful trip to Japan! This trip has been on our wish list forever. We were about to book flights just as Covid took hold. But as Japan is now fully opened up to tourists, with all restrictions being lifted the day before we arrived, off we went on an adventure!
We did a bit of a tour using the Shinkansen (bullet) train starting in Tokyo, followed by Fuji, Hiroshima, Osaka , Kyoto before heading back to to Tokyo. And yes, the trains were every bit as efficient as you’d imagine!
Of course, it was a hugely inspiring trip. I’m a big fan of cities, much more than the countryside and Japan did not disappoint.
I thought you’d enjoy some of the things we saw. I’ll get around to posting them on Instagram too at some point. You can breathe a sigh of relief, I’m talking textiles, fabric shops and The Dior exhibition. Maybe some architecture and manhole covers. I’m not planning on boring you with my holiday photos, though the nodding deer were fun. There areso many photos and videos I actually had to buy extra storage on my phone!
I’m starting off strong with the wonders of Dior and the Christian Dior ‘Designer of Dreams’ exhibition. I think everyone can appreciate and enjoy the beauty of this exhibition. It’s been to 7 cities to date. I’ve seen it in Paris (thanks to very kind friends) and in London so this was my third time. I have enjoyed how the exhibition has reflected and changed in response to each place. You’ll see below the Dior and Japan room was made from wood and washi paper.
Lost in Tokyo.
Honestly, we had to practically run around as our ticket was for 5pm, and closing at 6pm, but it was our second day in Tokyo, so got a smidge lost! If you are ever travelling with me and I say ‘we’ll just get on this subway train and get off at the next station if it’s going in the wrong direction and come back’. Do not listen to me – turns out wasn’t the subway but a local train going in the wrong direction out of Tokyo….
Anyway, we made it to see a little Dior in Japan, before closing and it was wonderful. I recognised some pieces from the London exhibition. The setting was designed as a tribute to Japanese culture by architect Shohei Shigematsu and the aim of the Tokyo exhibition was to explore further the strong links between Japan and Dior. I’m just going to share pictures but you can read more here at WWD, Museum Of Contemporary Art in Tokyo,Dezeen and DesignBoom
And the pièce de résistance … The Dior Ball was an oversized mirrored ‘staircase’ that had an impressive light show. The idea was that it was a ‘long processional staircase’ similar to the ones that lead up to traditional shrines and had a mirrored roof so seemed to go on into infinity.
Of course, my favourite room was The Toile Room. I think I’d be very happy if I never left there.
*updated to add – I’ll have to do a part 2 as I’ve just found more photos of some of the other rooms!
I spent a splendid day with two lovely ladies – Maria (of the Maria Apron Wrap Fame) and Wendy (of the new smock pattern). We very excitedly travelled into London by train, I shall gloss over the joys of signal failure, train delays, absolutely NO TRAINS at one point – stiff British upper lip and all that! – because we went to see the Alexander McQueen “Savage Beauty” Exhibition at the V&A. It was breath-taking, probably the most stunning collection of craftsmanship I’ve ever seen – such beautiful tailoring! McQueen was quite literally an artist using (mainly) fabric as his chosen medium.
I’ll let the photos do the talking…they are are all from Vogue, …apparently OK for Vogue to take photos, but not OK for me 😉
There’s not a lot more I can say to about these beautiful creations, except if you are in London, the advance tickets are sold out but you can buy tickets on the day at the museum and if the queue stretches on forever make sure you join it, you won’t regret it.
