Kimono: The Triumph of Japanese Dress
Available beginning Fall 2025
Kimono: The Triumph of Japanese Dress includes a variety of garments—made by extraordinarily skilled but largely anonymous artists—reflecting a range of needs and purposes. Among these are spectacular furisode, the long, fluttering-sleeved kimono intended for young, unmarried women. The brilliant coloring, bold decorations, and exquisite craftmanship of furisode were intended to reflect the youthful vibrancy of the wearer, as well as her intellectual sophistication, good taste, and the relative wealth of her family. No less magnificent are the uchikake, luxurious outer garments usually of embroidered silk. These are recognizable both for their exquisite decoration but also for their plump, weighted hems which cause them to trail sumptuously behind the wearer. In contrast, the exhibition will also feature humbler but no less compelling garments of resist-dyed cotton richly hued with indigo—worn by fishermen and farmers.
Kimono: The Triumph of Japanese Dress also includes a selection of men’s haori, the outwardly austere jackets which are lined with boldly masculine images of power and strength, as well as tomesode, shorter-sleeved garments with subdued, yet captivating decoration, considered appropriate for matrons. Enhancing this wide range of kimono are obi—the prized sashes traditionally used tie these garments, as well as a selection of kanzashi or hair ornaments of tortoise shell, coral, lacquer, and precious metals. Complementing these extraordinary garments and accoutrements, and providing rich context for understanding them, are a number of woodblock prints, ephemera, design books, and photographs.
Kimono: The Triumph of Japanese Dress is not only visually stunning, but offers a rare opportunity to learn about these extraordinary pieces of clothing. In addition, it enriches understanding of an ancient but ever evolving art form which even today is an immediately recognizable symbol of Japan.
To learn more about the exhibition, please click on the button below to download the exhibition specifications.
Images: Uchikake with Manmaku (detail), c.1900–1940, Silk, Collection of Norma Canelas and William Roth