Among private collections that are open to public are Mary Baskett and Gene Sherman collections that are available out there to see. These ladies have started collecting Japanese designers’ clothing (rather works of art!) from around 1970-80ies and wearing every day and later retiring it, so it is now displayed to public.

This Fall Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. has presented us with an amazing opportunity to view their current exhibit Japanese Contemporary Fashion: The Mary Basket Collection. When my friends were over in DC from Ohio for a visit we managed to see it and it is truly breathtaking, the exhibit is still on till April 2010. So if you are going to be in DC, you have to go see it for yourself!

images courtesy of Cubistliterature and Olga Buraya-Kefelian

Now that I live in Japan, I honestly can’t wait for Kyoto Costume Institute to announce some amazing new exhibitions to explore! They are the biggest source of inspiration for me as I have grown up around fashion, but a different kind of fashion. And now I see fashion everyday from streets of Harajuku to peripheral residences of real Japan or at least where it all started….