Are 1970s designers from Japan, oriental?
Orientalism in a medieval context, referred to the ‘East,’ including countries in the Middle East, North
Africa and Asia (Demerdash, nd). Positioned from a Western perspective, it attempts to describe the
interaction between the dynamic, East and Western cultures. Mears (2005) describes its general
meaning as an “appropriation by western designers of exotic stylist conventions from diverse cultures
spanning the Asian continent,” and exotic meaning, “originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign
country.” In historical contexts, orientalism includes further associations, juxtaposing an inflicted
characterization of Eastern culture and art as exotic, mysterious and erotic, against Western output,
which is implicitly orthodox (Llewellyn-Jones 2010); the fascination stems from its impenetrability
(Koda 1994).
