Journal

Inspiration: Japanese embroidered gowns for export

In the 1850s Japan began to open its ports to foreign trade.  In 1862 there was a Japanese display at the International Exhibition in London. In 1867, reconstructed tea house with three Japanese women in kimono was a highlight of the Exposition Universale in Paris. 

Japanese style immediately became fashionable in Europe and America and Japanese firms adapted their designs to fit the fashions and figures of the West. Japan was keen to strengthen its economy and saw trading in silk and applied arts as the way to do this.

This quilted and embroidered gown (which was part of the V&A’s exhibition Kimono) is likely to have been made by Shiino Shõbei, a silk merchant who established a business in Yokahama in 1859, and specialised in adapting Japanese embroidery to Western tailoring.

The brown quilted silk, the braided fastenings and the embroidery motifs and stitches were traditionally Japanese (though by the time this gown was made, embroidery was becoming less fashionable in Japan).

The bustle, waist, collar and shaped bodice were taken from what was fashionable in London, Paris or New York.

The embroidery is done in satin stitch, french knots and stem stitch - 

There are several similar gowns in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

In this one the embroidery is very similar in design

Though a trellis stitch has replaced the french knots.

You can explore more historically inspired embroidery in the Stitched course.

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