Iida Shinshichi

These garments were made by two of the most iconic design houses and retailers in Japanese history. The designer Hanae Mori has employed the butterfly as her signature design inspiration in a career spanning more than fifty years. In this dress, her deft melding of Eastern design with Western tastes is exemplified by the kimono-style sleeve, which is married with an abstracted version of an Indonesian-style pattern of botanicals and butterflies. Compare the style of the butterflies on the textile of this dress with the sarong in the case to your left, an Indonesian silk batik print fabric. Active since 1831, Takashimaya played a key role in disseminating the Japanese aesthetic after the opening of Japan to trade with the West in 1854. Some twentyfive years later, Takashimaya was represented at numerous international expositions, including the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This robe, designed for the Western market, may have been collected at such an event, given the excellent quality of needlework and design expressed in its overall composition.