Cultural Appreciation and Appropriation of Kimono in Western Fashion and Art

Kimono is a traditional Japanese dress which has a strict dress code, layers of socio-cultural symbolism, and regulated aesthetic expressions. Since the Japonisme movement in nineteenth-century Europe, Western painters had been influenced by Ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock printing, which depicted women in kimono during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Vincent Van Gogh painted a courtesan in her distinct kimono and hairstyle in his “Courtesane” (1887), and Claude Monet painted his wife in a red kimono gown in “La Japonaise” (1875). Designers, such as Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin, designed clothes that were loose-fitting like kimono, and imitated its geometrical shapes.

The Western fascination with kimono continues in the twenty-first century, such as Dior’s kimono-inspired couture collection, and Victoria’s Secret’s “Sexy Little Geisha” collection. With the development of social media, protests and criticisms against the use of kimono in the creative field have been loud and explicit.

In this presentation, Yuniya Kawamura examines where we draw a line between appreciation and appropriation, and compares and contrasts different viewpoints between Japanese-Americans and native Japanese who were born and bred in Japan.  

Cultural Appreciation and Appropriation of Kimono in Western Fashion and Art
Yuniya Kawamura
Sunday, April 27, 2025
2:00 PM–3:00 PM
Marly Room
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg FL 33701

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ABOUT YUNIYA KAWAMURA

Yuniya Kawamura is professor of sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.)/State University of NY. She is the author of “Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment” (Bloomsbury 2021). She has also published “The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion” (Bloomsbury 2004) and “Fashioning Japanese Subcultures” (Bloomsbury 2012, 2025). She is currently completing a book on “Sebastian Masuda: A Biography” (Anthem Press 2025). Her current research includes Japanese Ukiyo-e, Kabuki, and the Japonisme movement in the 19th century European art world. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) at Columbia University and is also professionally trained in fashion design and technical design at Bunka School of Fashion in Japan and F.I.T. in NY.  

Images:

Tanabata No Take (1843) by Yoshitama Utagawa, Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Library (archive.library.metro.tokyo.lg.jp)

Courtesane by Vincent Van Gogh Source: Van Gogh Museum (vangoghmuseum.nl)

Sorbet evening dress, 1913 (back oblique view). Silk satin, chiffon, glass beads. Paul Poiret, Paris. Chicago History Museum, ICHi-063294