Ryunosuke Okazaki: Fashion through the Prism of Posthuman and Affect Theories

Abstract

This paper analyses Ryunosuke Okazaki’s designs in relation to understandings of the Human within both 18^th Century ‘Western’ philosophy as well as contemporary theories of the feminine sublime [1]. Positioning the human in this way, Okazaki’s work comments on mankind’s relationship to nature as well as technology, referencing his own spirituality to conjure notions of the sublime. Fashion here becomes an ideal medium through which to challenge contemporary understandings of humanity and the human form in relation to gender and sexuality, as well as question the human desire for mass production and consumption. Beginning with an exploration of Okazaki’s material work and their construction processes, I go on to examine visual representations of their work within magazines (Metal, attitude) as well as on the runway. This application foregrounds Okazaki’s emotional connection to their work, which promotes a revaluation of fashion as disposable and suggests instead that we, as viewers and consumers, adopt an appreciation for the natural world, elements of which are almost always referenced within Okazaki’s designs. This paper, through consideration of Okazaki’s spiritual approach, investigates tradition alongside developments in technology and the role that fashion plays in this symbiosis.

1 Introduction

Fashion’s ability to determine and transform the body has been utilised by many designers to decentre the human, towards a posthuman understanding of fashion away from its inception as a patriarchal tool for Othering and disciplining bodies. Posthumanism is defined by Rosi Braidotti as both “the critique of the Humanist ideal of ‘Man’ as the allegedly universal measure of all things” as well as criticizing “species hierarchy and anthropocentric exceptionalism” [2]. Ryunosuke Okazaki is one of 2022’s graduate designers of Tokyo University of the Arts who, I propose, has created a body of work reflective of posthumanist thought and, more specifically, Joanna Zylinska’s theory of the feminine sublime [1]. With much of their work taking influence from the Jomon era as well as their connection to the Shinto religion, Okazaki’s approach to design is highly meditative, considering themes of powerlessness in relation to the threat of God and the natural world, as well as feelings of the sublime inherent to seeing God in nature. Having grown up in the city of Hiroshima, fashion is used by Okazaki to express the unpredictability of the natural world as well as the transience of human life. As Caroline Evan’s notes, fashion can be “a symptom of alienation, loss, mourning, fear of contagion and death, instability and change” [3]; Okazaki uses their design practice to meditate over such overwhelming feelings, which they consider to be pivotal in re-evaluating the relationship between humans and nature. Creating highly intricate and otherworldly sculptural garments which go beyond the natural forms of the human body, Okazaki’s work, I argue, also disrupts the ‘Western’ hierarchies of art/fashion, male/female, and culture/nature in its relationship to posthumanism and the sublime.

1.1 Methodology

Okazaki’s work, whilst utilising traditional hand-crafted techniques with reference to ancient Japanese Shintoism, is consumed by most as images through modern digital mediums. As with many other designers who produce sculptural garments rich in meaning, such as Hussein Chalayan, Okazaki does not necessarily produce fashion to be worn but admired as artistic spectacle on the runway and subsequently immortalised within the digital realm. With this in mind, “their brief appearance on the catwalk would, however, be fixed in the amber of the press photograph, and would circulate in both digital and print media as an image and memory of a fleeting moment in an evanescent spectacle” [4]. Following Hans Belting’s assertion that “we comprehend the world in images” [5], it is these moments of visual spectacle that I focus on in this paper, utilising visual research methods to analyse how the digital dissemination of fashion imagery and the evolution of digital technologies “are enabling the devolution of fashion authority” [6]. For most, Okazaki’s work is consumed purely through digital mediums, thus removing the elitism surrounding high-fashion consumption by making it instantly available to almost anyone. This mirrors the way in which Okazaki’s makes a posthuman attempt at questioning other forms of hierarchical mastery. Showcasing this, I employ visual research methods to draw attention to the digital mediums through which we consume ‘high fashion’ (primarily Instagram), which have “opened up new spaces of fashion consumption that are unprecedented in their levels of ubiquity, immersion, fluidity, and interactivity” [6]. Okazaki’s ancient techniques consumed through digital spaces represents a meeting of old and new worlds, promoting a posthuman openness towards the future whilst honoring the past, creating “new contexts engendered by the digital” [7].

2 Towards a Definition of the Feminine Sublime

Joanna Zylinksa, a key voice in developing theories of posthumanism particularly in relation to feminism and art, has established a theory of the sublime which moves away from its 18^th century roots, as understood by ‘Western’ philosophers such as Emmanuel Kant and Edmund Burke, and towards the French feminism of Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. The notion of the sublime, in its early understandings, can be defined as “a feeling of negative pleasure which mixes fear with delight” [1]. Burke’s understanding of sublimity can be aligned with a Humanist centring of the power of man, suggesting that “the sublime is ultimately the experience of overcoming this terror and thus celebrating one’s invincibility in the face of what seemed to be a greater power” [1]. For Burke, then, the sublime is also rooted in the feeling man gets when establishing power over that ‘Other’ considered to be a threat. While nature as well as technology are viewed as tools to be mastered by and become subservient to mankind within the Humanist paradigm, Zylinska establishes the feminine sublime as:

[A] recognition, rather than denial, of mortality and finitude to which the self is exposed in its encounter with absolute difference […] the feminine sublime takes responsibility for the inaccommodable otherness that many theorists of the sublime have attempted in one way or another to deny or tame.

Within this understanding, Zylinska encourages “the weakening of the idea of the universal subject” [1] to reveal the patriarchal bias inherent in the Enlightenment, and Humanism as an extension, which prioritises the human subject as male, white, and able-bodied. Such traditional theories of the sublime have made “attempts to annul the power of the sublime by either describing it in feminine terms or, contrarily, protecting it against femininity at all costs” [1], which can be linked to Emmanuel Kant’s emphasis on the sacrifice of imagination for reason, facilitated by the elimination of weakness and effeminacy. Barbara Claire Freeman classifies this traditional sublime as an “allegory of the construction of the patriarchal (but not necessarily male) subject, a self that maintains its borders by subordinating difference and by appropriating rather than identifying with that which presents itself as other” [8]. Embracing rather than mastering, the feminine sublime “opens itself to an incalculable difference which threatens the stability and self-sufficiency of the modern subject” [1]. In its rejection of the binary logic inherent within Humanism and early concepts of the sublime, the feminine sublime does not ascribe to traditional gender binaries, as the use of the term ‘woman’ “does not refer to some alleged feminine essence which acts as a thread linking all women, irrespective of their background, age and experience.” [1]. Instead, ‘feminine’ is used here as an ideal position to rethink a tradition centred around masculine ideas of reason, as described by Rosi Braidotti in her Patterns of Dissonance [9]. Opening such a debate around sexual difference thus encourages a re-examination of other ‘Western’ forms of hierarchical categorisation such as nature/culture, human/non-human, as well as art/fashion.

3 Ryunosuke Okazaki: A Contemplative Approach to Fashion

In applying Zylinska’s theory of the feminine sublime to the work of Okazaki, I first examine the ways in which his garments blur the line between art and fashion in both concept and design. The relationship between art and fashion has been a point of contention for many critics across these respective industries, with many upholding ideas of fashion as frivolous and superficial in comparison with the art world, which is often considered “above commerce” [10]. Art critic Michael Boodro maintains this kind of hierarchical categorisation in stating that “[a]rt is typically private, the creation of an individual. Fashion is public, a collaboration between designer, manufacturer, and wearer and then between wearer and viewer. Art requires time, contemplation, and thought. Fashion is instantaneous…” [10]. Okazaki rejects this binary by taking an extremely thoughtful approach to his designs, creating sculptural, avant-garde pieces which are highly influenced by his own spirituality and connection to the natural world.

Okazaki’s graduate collection, JōmonJōmon, is an homage to the Jōmon era and particularly the pottery created during this period. The people of this era saw God in nature while also acknowledging the sublime threat that nature posed; with natural disasters being beyond their control, they channeled their prayers into the creation of vessels which were highly decorative rather than functional [11]. Okazaki connects these fears prevalent in the Jōmon period to today’s increasingly threatening climate crisis, as well as the recent pandemic. Beyond these issues, Okazaki has also been impacted by the lasting effects of the Second World War and the atomic bombs which devastated Japan, notably his native city of Hiroshima. Okazaki is, therefore, inspired by human experiences of overcoming terror, but does not take this as a sign of human ‘invincibility’, as within early concepts of the sublime, but as an indication of the power of God and the natural world, which humans should appreciate, care for, and fear. Subscribing to Japanese Shintoism, Okazaki views his creations as an act of prayer, and crafted one of his earliest pieces from paper cranes, a symbol of peace in Japan. Named Wearing Prayer, the process of creating this garment was rooted in Japanese Shinto rites through the act of twisting paper into strings [11]. In an interview with Metal magazine, Okazaki recalls the highly meditative nature of his construction process, believing “that the act of creating itself is also an act of prayer” [11]. This reveals Okazaki’s garments to be highly personal and thoughtful embodiments of his spirituality and connection to Japanese tradition as well as the natural world, describing how he “feel[s] the roots of myself and the Japanese people as I create my works” [11]. In creating these “one-of-a-kind dresses with an artistic point of view” [11], Okazaki is deeply connected to each piece, taking an emotive approach to design which rejects the idea of fashion as an “instantaneous” [10] commodity to be mass produced and profited from at the expense of the planet.

Okazaki’s avant-garde approach produces garments not necessarily to be worn but to be admired as spectacles rich in meaning, rejecting traditional understandings of beauty in relation to 18^th century notions of aesthetics. In this, women have been “reduced to images of weakness, submission and beauty” and thereby “situated outside the ethical sphere […] excluded from the universal concept of ‘personhood’” [1]. Okazaki describes his approach to beauty as being more conceptual [11]; rather than reinforcing what is typically considered beautiful on the runway, Okazaki takes what he finds beautiful in the natural world and fashions the body around this. This kind of abstract approach can be seen in Okazaki’s initial stages of design, particularly his fashion sketches from 2019 (Fig. 1), in which limbs, colours, and shapes merge and overlap in such a way which demands thoughtful consideration to decipher the human form beneath the fabric. This can be likened to Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçon Spring 1997 collection, titled ‘Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress, and Become One’, in the way that it reconsidered the fashioned (female) body by going beyond the human form itself. This, by extension, encourages a slow and thoughtful consumption of Okazaki’s intricate garments outside of the fast-paced mainstream fashion system. Okazaki’s ethos as a designer is rooted, from concept to design to construction, in an intimate connection to and respect for the natural world. Stating that “I feel as if I myself, the creator, am a part of nature” [11], Okazaki rejects all Humanist desire to dominate and establish superiority over nature and the non-human, as well as the tendency for contemporary fashion designers to create without consideration for the planet, especially after understanding the devastating effects of mankind on the people and landscape of his home during World War 2.

Fig. 1.

Fashion sketches (2019). @ryunosuke.okazaki [Instagram]

4 A Posthuman Reassessment of the Natural/Technological Worlds

While showcasing his connection and appreciation for the natural world, Okazaki breaks down the nature/technology binary by acknowledging the innovative potential of the modern technological world, with natural and industrial imagery coming together harmoniously through his designs. The photography of RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI 000 collection showcases this meeting of worlds; much of Okazaki’s pieces, imitating the intricacies of the natural world with their swirling forms and insect-like structures, are photographed in city landscapes and industrial areas. Providing details of his upbringing, Okazaki explains his connection to both city-life and nature:

I was born and raised in a place full of nature. The Seto Inland Sea was nearby, and I could see the torrii gate of Miyajima. Behind the torii gate is Itsukushima Shrine, and behind that is a mountain. It was very magnificent, and I felt at peace when I saw it […] It was when I started living in the city that I began to think about nature […] If I hadn’t been in the city, I wouldn’t have been able to create the work I do now. [11]

This is encapsulated within an image included in Metal magazine alongside Okazaki’s interview, where a black and white striped dress from the RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI 000 collection morphs with the striped road markings to produce a hypnotic coming together of body, garment, and landscape. This blurring of the natural/unnatural is further articulated by the photography of Hiroshi Kutomi (Fig. 2). Here, the model is transformed into an otherworldly being, despite the designer being so inspired by nature, with the dress itself appearing supernatural with its geometric shapes and surrealist wing-like structures. The composition of the image, where the model can be seen within an oval, is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (1490). The Vitruvian Man represents the supposedly divine connection between the human form and the universe, foregrounding Enlightenment definitions of the human as white, male, and able-bodied; inscribed within a circle, man is not reliant on anything outside of himself. In contrast to this self-sufficiency, Okazaki’s garments represent an entirely different understanding of humanity and selfhood; the model is beginning to step outside of the oval in which they are inscribed, encouraging a revaluation of the Humanist understanding of man at the centre of the universe, not independent from or superior to the natural world.

Fig. 2.

JOMONJOMON dress from RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI 000. Photographer – Hiroshi Kutomi. @ryunosuke.okazaki [Instagram]

The connection between the human/non-human, nature/technology is also prevalent in Okazaki’s Spring 2022 runway showcasing the RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI 001 collection. Set in a warehouse under construction in Shibuya, Tokyo, the garments imitate “the shapes of insects and leaf veins that Okazaki drew in his picture diary as a boy” [12] and are brought to life under the extreme industrial lighting. The protruding tubes attached to some of the garments appear agentic as they move with the models, while surrealist ruffles in delicate mesh fabric mimic the iridescent transparency of insect wings as they are lit up by artificial lights. The show is described by Okazaki as “like insects drawn to a lamppost […] the intense light is like the future” [12], conveying a posthuman intrigue towards an unknown future where the lines between human/non-human, nature/technology, are not so clear. In this way, the RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI 001 collection materialises Zylinska’s comparison of the spider and the cyborg, as “inhabiting both the natural and the technological world and transgressing the distance between human and inhuman. The respective feelings of arachnophobia and technophobia they evoke reflect a broader anxiety at the heart of the modern world, which both bemoans the loss of the natural and passionately yearns for the alien” [1]. Okazaki embraces these anxieties by creating garments which invite the viewer to consider modes of engaging with the world away from hierarchical categorisation and the need to understand, define, and dominate. Just as Zylinska rejects the linearity of masculinist, Humanist discourse through the description of her work as a spider’s web, reflecting “a certain circular, or perhaps spiral, movement” [1], so to do the protruding antenna-like swirls of Okazaki’s garments as they transform the human models into surreal figures which defy categorisation.

5 Refashioning Otherness

With such a sculptural, abstract approach to design, Okazaki’s garments are gender neutral in the sense that they often completely distort or conceal the body in a way which rejects “a systematised standard of recognisability – of Sameness – by which all other can be assessed, regulated and allotted” [13]. Fashion, while having been used as a way to regulate the body and perpetuate the “sameness” of heteronormativity, can also be a valuable tool to materialise posthuman efforts to “harness the body’s capacities for transformation and connection (i.e. affect), in order to force it to become-otherwise, beyond the dominant modes of organising and imagining bodies” [14]. Just one way in which Okazaki does this is by extending the sculpted fabric of the garment to cover the face, as seen in his Spring 2022 collection (Fig. 3). Stephen Seely discusses this kind of “defacialising” in relation to designer Hussein Chalayan, suggesting that through this “he untethers fashion from normative images of beauty, bodies, gender, and humanity, allowing it to be used instead for the creative production of entirely new assemblages” [14]. Essentially detaching the identity of the wearer from the garment, Okazaki challenges the Humanist need to define, understand, and categorise through his posthuman, gender-neutral approach to fashion. Taking agency away from the gaze in this way, Okazaki invokes the feminine sublime and its rejection of “the gaze with its active/passive dichotomy as the principle of the perception of otherness. Instead, it opts for a less fixating interaction, allowing for a form of ‘visual caress’ which involves more than the eyes” [1]. This ultimately challenges the Enlightenment’s ocularcentric discourse of the sublime in which sight identifies otherness, and the masculine bias inherent to this. A posthuman approach to design, therefore, allows queer bodies to fashion themselves away from dominant modes of presenting the heteronormative body, realising the affective potential of fashion to encourage considerations of the body beyond ‘Western’ binaries. The empowering effects of Okazaki’s designs can be seen on the cover of attitude magazine (2021), where transgender drag performer Gottmik (also known as Kade Gottlieb), is pictured in a dress from Okazaki’s Fall 2022 collection. The voluminous ruffles transcend gender altogether, mimicking instead the delicate leaves of an orchid, used often as a symbol amongst intersex people who do not fit the binary. As Gottmik (she/her in drag, he/him out of drag) “opens up about embracing her identity as a femme trans man” [15], Okazaki’s dress compliments rather than validates the identity of the wearer through its repudiation of gender binaries.

Fig. 3.

Ryunosukeokazaki, Tokyo Spring 2022. source – Vogue Runway

6 Conclusion

To conclude, the deeply personal and thoughtful designs of Okazaki, evoking elements of his spirituality, childhood, and appreciation for the natural world, form a posthuman approach to fashion, particularly in his interaction with the feminine sublime. Witnessing the destructions and restrictions of humanity’s interaction with the Other, whether in relation to Western/non-Western, human/non-human, male/female, Okazaki harnesses the power of fashion and its potential to both perpetuate and challenge dominant modes of perception. By embedding my analysis of Okazaki’s work within early understandings of the sublime in comparison with Zylinska’s feminine sublime, I show how the progression of posthumanist ideas of the self and the Other can be materialised through fashion, but also how it can rethink mainstream capitalist notions of fashion as a commodity to be mass produced. Okazaki encourages us all to adopt a more thoughtful, considered approach to fashion, as well as to question the structuring of the world around us, with its hierarchies and binaries.