Since the 1970s, Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto has distinguished himself by creating garments that interact with, rather than accentuate, the wearer’s body through a variety of layering, draping, and wrapping techniques. While Yamamoto has frequently looked to Japanese aesthetics for his designs, his 1995 collections are unique for drawing inspiration from both the shape and the fabrics of traditional kimonos. In collaboration with artisans, Yamamoto used shibori, a resist-dyeing technique, to create small flashes of color on otherwise black kimono-shaped dresses and peignoirs, turning them “into flowing canvases. Small bunched pieces of the fabric are bound with tiny threads during dyeing; when the thread is removed a little knob remains, along with the original color. The fabric ends up having the peaked texture of a blowfish and tiny explosions of the undyed shade” (New York Times 1994). Throughout Yamamoto’s career, black has functioned as the absence of color, with red sometimes added to make the hue appear even darker in tone. Although the Spring/Summer 1995 collection was expensive and produced in a limited quantity, it was widely praised for its exquisite workmanship. This dress joined the Fine Arts Museums’ collection in 2012, with the generous gift of twentieth-century couture from Mrs. John N. (“Dodie”) Rosekrans, Jr. A philanthropist and international style icon, Rosekrans was lauded for her fearless approach to fashion, in which she paired, with great aplomb, global fashions with garments by myriad avant-garde designers, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, and Yamamoto. llc