Introduction
The early 1980s witnessed the beginning of a transformation in fashion when a group of Japanese designers emerged on Parisian runways. Their work challenged Western conventions through fluid, movement-driven shapes and the use of black and neutral fabrics, often in raw or distressed textures. This ground – zero approach to design emerged from conceptual principles of aesthetics – foundational to Japan’s cultural identity and daily life.
This exhibition explores four foundational Japanese aesthetic principles — Ma, Hi, So, and Ha — as reflected in the work of designers Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, Junya Watanabe, and Yohji Yamamoto.
Ma (間) signifies interval or space in-between. Emerging from Zen Buddhism, architecture, and Noh theater, Ma refers to the meaningful pause or emptiness between things — not absence, but a space with potential. The emptiness shapes what is around it.
Hi (翳) means shadow or shade. In Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s essay In Praise of Shadows, Hi reflects the Japanese sensitivity to subtle contrast – where what is hidden invites discovery.
So (素) is plainness, essence, and simplicity. Originating from wabi-sabi and tea ceremony aesthetics, So expresses naturalness and unadorned beauty — a return to the essential form of things, valuing materials in their raw, honest state.
Ha (破) represents rupture, break, and transformation. Derived from the classical concept Jo-Ha-Kyū (序破急) — the rhythm of beginning, rupture, and rapid conclusion in traditional Japanese arts — Ha embodies disruption and renewal, a breaking point that invites evolution.
Each garment is presented within installations, inspired by East Asian culture and Zen Buddhism, composed to create a ‘total work of art’ (Gesamtkunstwerk).
The purpose is to show each piece in a context that is beyond their everyday use. Viewing the garments through the lens of aesthetics transforms perception — it becomes a new way of seeing clothing. The installations are few but the space in between is what will strengthen each and form a visually strong narrative.
Visitors are offered guided insights into the aesthetic concepts and garments themselves, yet the ultimate goal is to allow the space to speak for itself. Guests are invited to experience the ambiguity and interstices that define the Japanese approach to beauty.
Aesthetic Concepts
Ma (間) — Space, Interval
Ma is the conscious use of space — the interval between objects, people, or moments. It is not emptiness as void, but a pause charged with potential, where absence gives shape to presence. In this exhibition, Ma is experienced in the space between the installations, the installations and the garments, and the space within the garments themselves.
Hi (秘) — Shadow, Contrast
Hi values what is hidden or withheld, offering only a glimpse to spark imagination. Rather than revealing everything, it allows mystery and suggestion to create depth. In this exhibition, Hi is present in shadows and partial views.
So (素) — Essence, Simplicity
So is the beauty of the plain, raw, and honest. It is revealed in natural states, where nothing unnecessary is added and material speaks for itself. So is reflected in garments and textiles presented without adornment.
Ha (破) — Rupture, Transformation, Break
Ha represents rupture — the breaking of established forms after mastery. It is not destruction, but renewal: honoring tradition while moving beyond it. In this exhibition, Ha is seen in garments that disrupt expectations, turning fracture into a source of creative energy.
“I’m not making something to fit any particular body. I’m thinking of something else – shapes. My sketches are lines. It’s fabric to be wrapped around the body and that is individual” (1983)
– Rei Kawakubo
Installations
A. Zen Garden (Karesansui) — Ma Between the Object and Environment
- Components: This installation here is a Japanese Zen Garden – Karesansui in Japanese. It displays a Comme des Garcons dress from the Fall/Winter 2014 collection – acting like a rock in the garden. The wig was created by artist Briana Angulo-Madueño using raw sheep’s wool. This element is an homage to the avant garde wigs made for Comme des Garcons runways – done by artist/wig sculpture Julian d’Ys.
- Purpose:Ma is represented in the space between the body and the dress. The shape lends itself to make you question if there even is a body in there. The only thing that gives away that it is the dress is the head and wig – without it you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it is a garment at all. This begins to make you understand how thin the line is between the garment as a dress and garment as an object really is.Ma is also represented by the negative space in the gravel. It is the space in between the piece and the two rocks gives visual harmony and creates an environment that aids meditation. Zen gardens are traditionally found at temples or monasteries and made for the purpose to quiet the mind. The simplicity of rocks, gravel, and empty space reduces visual noise, helping practitioners enter a meditative state. They imitate nature and greatly simplify it – only showing its most essential aspects, like “water” represented by the gravel with different styles of raking and “mountains” or “islands” represented by the rocks. The circular shapes around the rocks and dress symbolize water ripples and the straight lines represent tranquil undisturbed water.
B. CDG Velvet Twin Set — Ma Between Two Identical Objects
- Components: Two Comme des Garçons F/W 2012 velvet ‘2D’ dresses displayed on two headless mannequins. One hand from each of the mannequin will be tied by a rope, linking the two together.
- Purpose:The twins emphasize Ma – the space in between the body and the garment, where you can’t tell the shape of the body. There is also space in each object, imitating a mirror image. This represents the moment one questions their mirror image and asks is this me, is this other, or are we one? The question has no answer. But the space in between will always be there, with a rope representing the tension of the unknown, and the pause that holds the question. Rei Kawakubo is constantly in question with her own designs and identity. The natural fiber rope also pays homage to the Japanese practice of Hojojutsu which is the traditional Japanese martial art of restraining a person using cord or rope. This practice evolved over time, becoming a more artistic and aesthetic form of rope bondage, particularly in the Edo period, where it was used in Kabuki theater.
“Destruction, reconstruction, etc. are words given by the media. What I try to do in my work is to dispense with preconceived ideas (about language or fashion, for example) and established techniques in order to create something new” 1998
– Rei Kawakubo
C. Shoji Panel Shadow — Hi (Concealment)
- Components: Comme des Garçons S/S 1997 “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” dress displayed behind shoji screens on a full-body mannequin, accompanied by a simple flower arrangement on a small table beside it. The lighting casts silhouettes of the body, dress, and flower, emphasizing form and shadow. The mannequin features an avant-garde wig, enhancing the sculptural presence of the installation.
- Purpose:This installation contains the concept Hi – the concealment to spark imagination. It lends itself to be discovered, where you don’t know what you’re looking at, at first, but then you look behind the shoji panel… and it’s a dress. This is from the Comme des Garcons Spring/Summer 1997 collection called “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” Collection Dress, informally known as “Lumps and Bumps.” This was a revolutionary collection at this time where it proposed the idea that the body can be shaped by the clothes themselves, rather than the clothes being enslaved to the body. It was the complete opposite of the sexy and promiscuous style that was being led down the runway in the late 90s which enhanced and exposed the idealized feminine body.The space in between the body and the garment blurs the lines between what is the body and what is the clothesRei was quoted saying “The clothes could be the body and the body could be the clothes.”The dresses were filled with kidney shaped padding that was inserted into each dress. The dresses were cut to have these padding filled in. She used a lot of gingham patterns on the dresses, hinting at domesticity. This contrast between odd protruding shapes and this matronly type of patterns – makes you kind of uncomfortable. There is filling on the neck and sides, almost like some type of disfigurement of the body.
D. Gun Powder Dress — Ha (Breaking Form)
- Components: This dress is Issey Miyake’s Cai Guo-Qiang Guest Artist Series No. 4 ‘Gunpowder’ Dress from 1998. Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist best known for creating prints/designs by detonating gun-powder charges on paper. The explosion leaves a residue of scorch marks and ash, reminiscent of traditional Chinese calligraphy ink drawings.
- Purpose:For the Issey Miyake Making Things exhibition in 1998, Cai Guo-Qiang arranged a trail of explosive powder onto Pleats Please garments. The garments were arranged in the shape of a dragon, a common motif in Chinese art that symbolizes life, wisdom, and power. The design created by the explosion was reproduced as a print on the dresses.The aesthetics present here is Ha – which represents breaking / transformation → the explosion on the dress creates a beautifully intricate design that emerges from destruction of the fabric itself. As well as Hi which refers to what is hidden → the shadow in the front entrance.
“Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy – but mysterious. But above all black says this: I don’t bother you – don’t bother me”
– Yohji Yamamoto
E. Naoko Ito’s ‘Flora’ (2009) — Ha (Breaking Form)
- Components: We were invited to collaborate with artist Naoko Ito to showcase her work Flora. This artwork consists of a tree branch cut into segments and preserved within glass jars, arranged to reconstruct the form of the original branch.
- Purpose: The work was installed by the artist herself, as it must be constructed and deconstructed in the space where it is shown—reflecting the transient nature of the piece, in which nothing is fixed and everything exists in a continual state of change.The sculpture embodies the aesthetics: Ha, in the branch fragmented into separate parts, its form maintained yet recontextualized within glass jars; and Ma, in the space between each segment that becomes visually striking when illuminated.Naoko Ito is a Japanese visual artist based in New York. Her work is focused on the complex relationship of nature and humanity. She explores the strenuous relationship through natural materials and juxtaposition of forms. Ito’s artwork Flora is part of a larger collection titled Urban Nature Project 2009. When asked about her approach to her work, Ito said it all begins with a concept and in depth research. She photographs people in nature and follows a conceptual thread until it leads to the physical creation of the piece. The act of creation is also essential to the meaning of the artwork as she senses it as a ceremony or ritual. To her, the time consuming act of putting the piece together is also a preservation of time. When asked about her choice in materiality, she varies the nature aspect of the piece but uses glass jars as a symbol of preservation. It began as a comparison to the winter landscape and merged into the significance of the jar itself- used for food preservation, fermentation, and storage. Another key factor is the sustainability of the materiality, glass being endlessly recyclable.
F. Bamboo and Contrasting Black Garments — So (The Essence of the Unadorned)
- Components: This installation highlights the aesthetic of So, which is all about the raw, the unadorned, and the essential. These pieces by Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto from the 1980s and 1990s were designed so that the fabric is almost the garment itself — there’s very little distance between the material in its natural state and the finished dress. Both designers were interested in showing the beauty of what already exists in the fabric, rather than transforming it into something completely different. You’ll notice that sense of rawness and honesty in the way these pieces are constructed. You might not even be able to tell which is a piece of fabric and which is a dress.
- Purpose: Parisian critics called it “Hiroshima chic. Here we have a Comme des Garcons Spring/Summer 1998 dress ‘Clustering Beauty’. It’s made from 1 layer of fine wool and 3 layers of cotton underneath. Its raw hems and form, makes it seem as if the fabric was wrapped on the body, arms holes cut, and sewn from the front. That is the effect it’s trying to give but actually the pattern is more complicated than that with darting on the waist and…… This last piece is a Yohji Yamamoto Spring/Summer 1993 black cotton knit dress. The purposeful unfinished knitting lets you appreciate the rawness of the material itself and the beauty of the process – where there is always a question of if something is unfinished.
“A feeling of safety and security soon leads to boredom. What has driven fashion through the ages is, a bottom, the way it plays with danger, something that confounds the conventional understanding of sexy: such wild and untamed elements are what make as garment alluring”
– Yohji Yamamoto
G. A-POC ‘Scroll’— So (essence)
- Components: A Piece of Cloth (A-POC) is a way of making clothing from one continuous piece of fabric. Instead of cutting and sewing many separate parts, the garment is already built into the fabric itself. We hung it up, almost imitating a long scroll where you can see all the pieces of the dress, shirt, socks, gloves, and hat.
- Purpose:A-POC was created by Dai Fujiwara and Issey Miyake in 1998 based on the idea that a garment is designed from its very first element: the thread. The designer must envision the final form while studying how to construct it from the ground up. For Miyake, this approach reflects a central philosophy of clothing design—that every piece of fabric begins with a single thread.The philosophy and garment itself lends to So – which reflects the idea that most beautiful things are those kept in their natural state. Dai Fujiwara said that designing is not an act of covering up and hiding something, but one of discovering and revealing an object’s or material’s inherent potential. And it is how something is revealed that differentiates designers, each with his / her own unique and individual persona. In creating this, Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara discovered new things in their method of manipulating knit fabrics and constructing them through computer aided programs – rather than innovate those which already exist. And it is through this exploration and discovery that we can find the unique characteristics of A-POCHow APOC is made: “An industrial weaving machine is preprogrammed to spin an enormous, continuous tube of fabric. A repeating pattern of seams is woven into the tube, creating a patchwork of shapes whose outlines begin to suggest dresses, shirts, socks, gloves, and hats. The customer can cut along the seams without destroying the tubular structure of each individual item. The result is a puzzle of monochromatic articles of clothing that leaves behind virtually no wasted material.”
“From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved…”
– Issey Miyake
“ A moment of mystery, it might almost be called, a moment of trance”
-Jun’Ichirō Tanizaki
In Praise of Shadows (In’ei raisan), 1933
