A Response Of The Film "First Monday In May"

In the long history of fashion design, western art styles are often considered the main popular trend, especially in eastern countries. I can see this phenomenon clearly growing up in China. As Yuniya (2018) clearly points out live in a world where numerous aesthetics, religions, histories, and cultures coexist. We have females who are Muslims but hate their tradition so that they can wear more westernized clothes in support of freedom and feminism. We have weirdly twisted hip-hop culture prevailing in China in the recent years where people blindly admire the western hip hop culture but only seeing its shallow surface, not understanding the histories and spirits of that culture. We have Japanese artist like Seiji Ozawa who is considered one of the best who has ever done it. While he is seen as a legend there are way more highly talented Japanese conductors remain unknown to the world because they did not choose orchestra. Why does western art styles almost always win against other traditional cultures’? Is it because the colonization? Is it because western culture is more rebellious so that it is more appealing to youngsters? Or is it simply because it is better, in all aspects? From what I have experienced and learnt, I believe the reason why western fashion so popular is due to two key factors: history and subculture.[Yuniya, Kawamura. 2018. "Chapter 4: Designers: The Personification of Fashion ." In Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Dress, Body, Culture). Bloomsbury Visual Arts] Researching the most world famous Asian designers, I found they are mostly from Japan, and they are not young. Two of the most well-known designers are Yoji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo. As Bonnie notes, these two great designers have not only significant influences in Japan but in the whole world. Yoji Yamamoto is famous for his designs but also his technical skills, and Rei Kawakubo is famous for her high fashion label CITATION Eng11 \l 1033 (English 2011). But none of them made their name by fully celebrating their own culture. If you google them by Images, you will not find them in Kimonos. But on the other hand, most celebrities in Japan even wears Kimonos to formal events, and people wear kimonos not only in holidays. In fact, Japan is one of the best countries who celebrate and preserve their traditions. So, why does Yoji and Rei does not celebrate Japanese designs? Some fashion enthusiasts such as Lewittes argue that it is because of the commercial value, which by designing western culture-based clothing has a much wider market landscape. However, after watching interviews and articles of them, I do not believe that they are designers who pays much attention to commercial value, maybe Rei Kawakubo is now but not in her early designs. People, always say that we have to look at the history to know what is happing now. Therefore, I looked into what happened to Japan as a country and try to find the cause of why Yoji and Rei’s works are mostly westernized and generalize why is this the tren...