Japanese Fashion Designers celebrates the genius of the contemporary Japanese fashion and textile designers and highlights their powerful influence upon a whole generation of emerging designers, most evident in the work of the Belgians. It will illustrate how Miyake merged fashion with art; how Yamamoto infused meaning and memory into his clothes; and how Kawakubo (Comme des Garcons) re-contextualised fashion as an idea and a form of communication. It tells the story of their brilliant innovations and how they showed the world that our clothing can cross cultures and generations and can express how we feel about ourselves. It explains why fashion has been de-constructed, both literally and conceptually with uneven hemlines, exposed seaming and crinkled fabrics, and a new concept of what constitutes 'beauty'. But how did they inspire the 'second wave' of Japanese and other European designers to carry on their philosophy towards designing, or to adopt their radical thinking in order to challenge traditions and to re-think old ideas and forms? Their legacy of intellectual design unfolds in the second half of the book which discusses the work of Watanabe, Takazawa, and Takahashi, as well as Margiela, Van Noten, Demeulemeester, Chalayan and Viktor & Rolf. The book outlines how tailoring expertise is respected, fine fabrics are extolled and new technologies and methods are embraced, yet revolution remains at the forefront of their design.