FASHION IN BLUE. INDIGO IN JAPANESE AND CZECH TEXTILES THEN AND NOW

Curators: Markéta Vinglerová and Setsuko Shibata

This exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will present historical and entirely contemporary Czech and Japanese textiles made using a technique known as indigo blue-dyeing or shibori. The exhibition will show that these traditional technologies have not been left to the past but are still used in contemporary fashion and art in both the East and the West. Visitors will be able to see yukata, traditional Japanese summer garments, from the 19^th century to the present day, as well as decorative katagami stencils, fabrics and a documentary about traditional blue-dyeing in the Czech Lands and the various ways of working with indigo in Japan, where the original technique for dyeing with natural dyes is still used today. The colour blue became a symbol with a philosophical significance, and “Japan Blue” has become a well-established term. The exhibition highlights the diversity of indigo blue-dyeing through the kimono, yukata, fashion and hanging textiles on display, and it shows how it has influenced contemporary artists and fashion designers such as Shihoko Fukumoto and Issey Miyake.

As a local counterpart to the Japanese exhibits, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will map the genesis of blue-dyeing in the Czech Lands and examine how it is used in contemporary fashion and art. Visitors will be able to see Moravian folk costumes, examples of 1960s and 1980s blue-dyeing from the Folk Art Centre (ÚLUV), especially the work of Liběna Rochová, as well as fashion by contemporary designers such as Pavel Ivančic, Martina Dvořáková, Alice Klouzková, Monika Drápalová and Klára Nademlýnská. Textile installations by Adéla Součková will demonstrate how blue-dyeing can be used in fine art, while Petra Gupta Valentová will present her current indigo blue-dyed fabrics.