EXOTIC 1924-1949
Western and Japanese designers have often looked to other cultures’ art for inspiration, particularly during the Art Deco period. Greater ease of travel and new archeological findings made the “exotic” more accessible, and interpretations of its art was fresh and innovative in its time. Art Deco was an international style, which adapted and appropriated motifs from around the world.
African and Polynesian Motifs
Silk Kimono, Taisho Era
Silk Haori, Taisho Era
Silk Kimono, Taisho Era
The designers of these three kimono and haori seem to have used motifs drawn from both African and Polynesian art. To the untrained eye, the art of these two vast parts of the world is fairly similar. The examples shown here as possible inspiration for these kimono/haori are not specific to any one of these garments, but are meant to show the types of motifs that were available for inspiration to Japanese designers of this era.
Tuarag silver ring
Date unknown (antique)
Morocco
Tuareg silver and carnelian pendant
Date unknown (antique)
Sahara region, Africa
Tapa (bark) cloth, date unknown
South Sea Islands
Designer unknown
Fabric design with African motifs, 1920s
France
Tapa (bark) cloth, early 20th century
South Sea Islands
Carved wood printing blocks, contemporary
West Africa
Egyptian Revival 1920s
Silk Haori, Taisho Era
Private Collection
Silk KImono, Taisho Era
Over the centuries, several cycles of Egyptian Revival coincided with times when Egypt was thrust upon the world stage—as with Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798 and the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, which received world-wide press coverage. Egyptian Revival influenced fashion, architecture, furniture, decorative arts, and nearly every aspect of design in the West.
Japan saw Egypt as representing the origins of Western imperial civilization, and China for the ancient empires of in the East. Japanese designers seized on Egyptomania, producing consumer goods that included garments and decorative objects.
Saturday Evening Post cover, 1923
New York, New York, United States
Franz Scheyder, architect
Maison “Egyptienne,” 1905
Strasbourg, France
Tropical Motifs
Silk Juban (underkimono), probably Taisho Era
Art Deco screen, early 20th century
Europe
The surface design of this juban resembles the Art Deco design on the screen above, as well as aloha shirts that became popular in Hawaii in the 1920s and 30s:
“Though its precise origins are lost to history, the aloha shirt first appeared in Hawaii in the 1920s or ’30s, probably when local Japanese women adapted kimono fabric for use in men’s shirting.”
—Smithsonian Magazine
Aloha shirt, 1920s-30s
Hawaii, United States
Silk men’s Juban (underkimono), probably Taisho Era
