초록
Clothes and human body are inseparably related. Aesthetic consciousness of the body determines the form of clothing, reflecting the time and culture as well as the individual and society. Clothes can even reorganize the meaning of the body, while transcending their instrumental functions of protecting, expanding and deforming the body. Using 'body' to analyze the clothing form, my study develops a framework by which to classify the planarization of the body in Japanese avant-garde fashion. In order to inquire the formative style and aesthetic values expressed in Japanese avant-garde fashion, my study examines subjects from the discourse on the body to the fashion collections of the 20th and 21st century. The results of the study are as follows. Japanese avant-garde fashion focuses on a planarization of the body which questions the three dimensional construction of the body in more conventional clothing system. Un-structured, variable space posited between the body and clothes, participation of the wearer, attention to recent technology and material, and absence of gender identification characterizes the planarization of the body in Japanese avant-garde fashion. The absence of body in fashion stresses a will-to-form rather than mere bodily proportion and structure, which explores trans-extensity that goes beyond the boundary of the body Ultimately, planarization of the body betrays the correspondence between signifiant and signifie in sartorial convention. Aesthetic ideal of the body is visualized in the form of a dress. Some clothes prioritize the body, particularly the feminine bodily curves, while others focus on the clothing itself as abstract and sculptural forms. Fashion continues to explore forms and images that transcend the traditional representations of the clothed body. As a type of intimate architecture, fashion always mediates the dialogue between clothes and body, or fashion and figure. My study suggests a framework to analyze bodily representation in Japanese avant-garde fashion, focusing on the relationship between the clothes and body.