ew Delhi 1996: on a Saturday-night teenage party- girls in microminis, long-haired boys in expensive black shirts. Sunday morning at a children's playground: mothers in jeans and baseball caps, fathers in shorts and T shirts. Paris 1996: at John Galliano's debut collection for Givenchy, the most ballyhooed fashion event in several years, a group of blood-orange saris, complete with gold brocade and matching silk parasols, floats along the runway. For fall the young maestro is showing new variations on the Japanese obi, or sash, which he calls "a symbol of refined elegance and ritual." It is ironic that the clothes that have shaped Asian cultures should be declining in fashion appeal at home_even as they capture the Western imagination. In Japan the kimono - a garment that has had a profound influence on Western couture - is now worn only on formal occasions. On the subcontinent splendid native dress-the sari, the salwar-kameez, the ghaghra-is still important, in part because of strong religious traditions. But young adults are more impressed by what they see on TV; the tight, provocative clothes viewed on "Dynasty", now running in India, look liberating and glamorous. Strange too that even after decades of the Western craze for Oriental exoticism in both clothing and décor, it took the Princess of Wales' trip to Pakistan last February to open Western eyes to the allure of the sexy salwar-kameez (a long tunic over flowing trousers). Pictures of Diana and her pretty friend Jemima Goldsmith, the daughter of British tycoon Sir James Goldsmith and wife of cricket hero Imran Khan, wearing the delicate, embroidered filaments lighted up the international media. In Europe, Helmut Lang, the ultrachic master of minimalism, uses the obi as much as Galliano. Says he: "The urge was to create something urban and modern out of an old proportion." And countries like India, China and Afghanistan are virtually required pilgrimages for an ambitious designer looking to enrich his palette or his repertory of fabrics, or to simply rinse his eye. For the first half of this century Asian clothing was of infinite variety but very little change; the classic styles prevailed. The story of how modern Asian fashion migrated west starts around 1960. Before World War II, Western clothing was worn only by the educated and wealthy classes, who had their clothes copied from European fashions. Junichiro Tanizaki's novel The Makioka Sisters (prewar), a chronicle of domestic life and style nearly worthy of Proust, shows the sisters pondering the subtleties involved in wearing the kimono or Western dress, almost as a psychological barometer. Hanae Mori, who could be a child of the Makiokas, is Japan's fashion pioneer, borrowing French methods of producing high-quality, well-tailored clothing and American marketing savvy. Still flourishing after 30 years, the designer emphasizes gorgeous fabrics, often blends, in vibrant colors. Says Mori of her quest for a synthesis of East and West: "The kimono suggests elegance and beauty in a subtle way, and a lot depends on how it is worn. In Europe clothes are designed to show everything all at once ... clothes are regarded as a statement." | CONTENT |