Kansai Yamamoto Black Wool Embroidered Dragon Jacket (AW 1982–83)

This garment is in outstanding condition with no or minimal signs of wear. Any flaws present are negligible and do not detract from the overall appearance or integrity of the piece.

Kansai Yamamoto showed his first collection in London in 1971 and began showing in Paris in 1975, among the first Japanese designers to present in Europe. His work embraced basara, a Japanese aesthetic of flamboyance and excess, and drew on kabuki theatre, ukiyo-e woodblock prints, irezumi tattooing and the clothing of Edo-period firefighters. He worked at large scale and in saturated colour, setting dragons, tigers, samurai faces and kanji across knitwear, jackets and jumpsuits through knitting, appliqué and embroidery. He became internationally recognised for the stage costumes he created for David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane years. He applied kabuki techniques, such as the quick-change reveal, into rock performance. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Yamamoto developed collections featuring embroidered mythical creatures, bold graphic motifs and unconventional proportions, often using traditional Japanese textile techniques. His work is represented in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Palais Galliera in Paris.

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