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The Karun Thakar Collection
208 pages, 24.5 x 32.5 cm
176 colour illustrations
Hardback
English
ISBN: 978-3-89790-418-7
49,80 € *
* int. retail price | Shipping cost

ARNOLDSCHE Art Publishers
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KIMONO - MEISEN

Karun Thakar | Anna Jackson

 
With over 120 kimonos from the London-based collection of Karun Thakar, this publication presents an opulent selection of original meisen silk creations, which with their luminous, colourful and bold patterns formed the fashionable visual identity of Japan, especially in the first half of the twentieth century.
 
Meisen silk was produced in Japan from the late nineteenth century through to the middle of the twentieth century and became particularly popular between 1910 and 1940. Meisen was an innovative, quick and cost-effective dye and weaving method using coloured pastes and paper stencils to achieve the effect of labour-intensive and multicoloured traditional kasuri ikat fabric. The meisen kimonos that were produced en masse were the first affordable ready-to-wear kimonos to be offered in department stores.
Patterns for the first meisen kimonos were produced by a young generation of Japanese textile designers who synthesised classic Japanese design with the influence of Western design movements, such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which were themselves strongly influenced by the Japonism of the nineteenth century. The patterns, which still look fresh and original today, represent a little-known study in textile design of the early twentieth century. There are bold art deco designs, enlarged fanciful traditional patterns, flamboyant colourful flower motifs, bright geometric designs, and landscapes in vivid colours and delicate pastel tones.
As eminent fashion garments, meisen kimonos would be replaced with the next new fashion after just a season or two. Thus many of them were stored in excellent condition and were even passed down as heirlooms. In recent years they have resurfaced and are now enjoying the high esteem bestowed on them by collectors.
 
 
About the author
Anna Jackson
Anna Jackson
As keeper of the Asia Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Anna Jackson looks after its extensive collection of Japanese textiles and costumes. Her focus lies on the cultural exchange between East Asia and the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Posted 19 September 2015

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Explaining his fascination on textiles and ikat weaving, his growing understanding of the fabric construction, structure, cut and stiches, and collecting, the text by Karun Thakar sums up the types of kimonos, motifs and designs. Having a collection of 250 meisen kimonos and jackets he wants to share his fascination with us, until it gets clear in future where the collection will find a new home to be enjoyed by a larger audience.

Anna Jackson describes the rich history of textiles in Japan, the silk production and industrialization of spinning, weaving and dyeing, applying patterns with paste through stencils on the warps. The way of dressing is pointed out as after the great earthquake of 1923 and the American bombing in the closing year of the Second World War Japan is building up a new and more modern society with beauty parlors and salons, magazines on fashion and make-up changing the outlook of the kimonos, influenced by Western art movements such as Art Deco and Modernism. ”Yet, dressed in bold patterned and brightly coloured garments” the Japanese women were not reactionary but glamorous and fashionable, happily embracing the past while looking to the future. And the surviving of the meisen remaining fashionable unto the 1950s.

This well-made book with wonderful photos of the different patterns and kimono shapes is a wealth of value, perfectly for beginners who are curious about the techniques or the interested readers who want to know more.
 
Angela van der Burght

Book pages KIMONO - MEISEN

Book pages KIMONO - MEISEN

Book pages KIMONO - MEISEN

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