Australian-Japanese fashion : the folds and wrappings of cultural exchange and sustainable practices

![CDATA[Fashion is a global concern but its current forms and values are unsustainable. The cultural exchange underpinning Australian-Japanese fashion is a different order of global fashion, and incorporates promising practices for the future of a more sustainable fashion industry. The paper will outline the scope of a new research project on the design, manufacturing, and retail of Australian-Japanese fashion designers, in the context of increasing accountability for sustainable and ethical clothing provenance. The project maps Australian based designers’ motivations and practices who incorporate traditional and contemporary Japanese design techniques to fuse an East/West aesthetic and design sensibility: it seeks to gain a clearer picture of designers with Japanese heritage and/or training, their successes and failures in a tough Australian industry. Akira Isogawa is an internationally celebrated Australian fashion designer who speak so penly about his bi-cultural heritage and the influences of traditional and contemporary Japanese design principles and fabrics on a unique fused aesthetic, and Yoshi Jones has developed a loyal following for her hand-crafted garments that incorporate Japanese graphics, fabrics and striking re-workings of vintage kimonos. In spite of media attention surrounding the 2018 Isogawa retrospective at MAAS, there is little research on his enduring aesthetic and independent business success in a very tough Australian fashion industry where many brands have closed their local businesses such as Lisa Ho, Zimmerman, Collette Dinnigan, David Lawrence, and Marcs. Australian fashion businesses face challenges including the high-cost of local manufacturing, reduced import quotas under tariff agreements, competition from international fast fashion chains and online retailers, and fluctuating customer interest in shopping mall and online retail. The project investigates these businesses and their customers’ experiences for insights to share with an Australian fashion industry searching for more ethical and sustainable models of a design, production, and use, and alignment with the principles of a circular economy.]]