VAMFF ARTS PROGRAM 2019 | AKIRA ISOGAWA | Unfolding A Life In Fashion with Roger Leong

The exhibition Akira Isogawa, is the first to explore the Sydney-based designer’s career of more than 25 years, touching on the impulses and cultural influences that have contributed to the making of a fashion original.

Known for his fusion of Asian tradition with Australian ease, the exhibition features a wide range of work, mostly drawn from Isogawa’s extensive archive, from which the designer has generously donated to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. The curators of the exhibition – Roger Leong and Kristina Stankovski – worked with Akira Isogawa over a period of nearly two years.

This talk outlines the exhibition and discusses the process of putting together the display and the related book written by Georgina Safe with Akira Isogawa that coincides with Akira Isogawa, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 15 December 2018–30 June 2019

ROGER LEONG has been a Senior Curator at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney since late 2014. He has held curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Australia, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria.

He has curated exhibitions on Regency dress, contemporary millinery and footwear including sneakers, 1980s power-dressing, men’s fashion, black in fashion, ballet and fashion, lace in fashion, English embroidery and other subjects such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts, contemporary Australian artists including Rick Amor, Peter Churcher, eX de Medici, the English stylist Isabella Blow and, most recently, the Sydney-based designer Akira Isogawa.

This lecture is supported by The Friends of The Johnston Collection.

The photo credit: Photograph by Marinco Kojdanovski, MAAS, Akira Isogawa: looking back on 25 years in fashion, Akira Isogawa: an exhibition in the making