Kimono designs and Japanese style have inspired global art, design and fashion since Japan re-opened to the world in the mid nineteenth century. This exhibition will display historically significant and visually dynamic examples of costume and fashion from Japanese history, and establish a creative lineage to the most experimental and innovative fashion designers of today.

Works will include Noh and Kyogen costume, popular intricately decorated kimono of the samurai and merchant classes of the Edo period, examples of Japanese early interaction with western fashions during the late nineteenth century, Japanese modernist fashion of the early twentieth century, and key works by fashion innovators Issey Miyake and John Galliano, Japanese contemporary creative Hiroko Takahashi and Harajuku street fashions.

Alongside unique examples of kimono and kimono inspired costume the exhibition will feature paintings, posters, wood block prints, magazines and decorative arts that contextualise themes the kimono story. It will present the diverse skills mastered by traditional artisans that include shibori tie die, rice paste resist designs and indigo blue dyeing and highlight the numerous materials used for textile production throughout Japanese history, including silk, cotton, metallic thread, paper, elm bark, banana tree fibre and deer leather.