Fashion

A kimono sash, a Thai loom, a trapper’s cap. Fashion and accessories draw on the textile and jewelry traditions of Japan, China, Thailand, Nepal, India, West Africa and Europe. Obi clutches are cut from the brocaded silk sashes once tied around a kimono; silk scarves carry Katsushika Hokusai’s ghosts, Oiwa, Okiku and the Laughing Demoness of 1831; Ranka-fu orchids, Shotaro Kaga’s botanical woodblocks of 1946, appear on paper goods. Tang jackets with mandarin collars and frog closures come from China, hand-woven scarves from Thailand, and Rex rabbit fur hats from the old trapper’s pattern. Jewelry draws on the Fulani of the Sahel, the Dogon of Mali, Czech glass beads, Italian and Dutch trade beads and Nepalese malas.

Silk, leather, brass and gold keep the marks of the hand, like any antique. An obi clutch on a hall console, a silk scarf over the arm of a bouclé chair: the world’s material culture, put to daily use.