Editing Japanese clothing (section)

==== Meiji period (1868–1912)====
{{main|Japanese clothing during the Meiji period}}
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File:Ootuki family 1874.jpg|alt=Three men in kimono and {{transliteration|ja|haori}}|Part of the Ootuki family in kimono, 1874
File:Gensei Kajin Shu by Yoshu Chikanobu 1890.png|alt=Women in a variety of Japanese dress; one woman in Western dress; a schoolgirl in {{transliteration|ja|hakama}}|Assorted types of kimono, Western dress, a court lady in {{transliteration|ja|[[:Commons:Category:Keiko (dress)|keiko]]}}, and a schoolgirl in a high-collared shirt, kimono and {{transliteration|ja|hakama}}. All wear both purple and red. 1890.
File:1912 May Ishikawa Setsuko.jpg|alt=Large family portrait|Family of [[Horiai Setsuko]], May 1912, some in European dress, some in kimono, some wearing {{transliteration|ja|hakama}}. Women's {{transliteration|ja|hakama}} spread from the court as part of [[reform dress#Japan|Japanese reform dress]].
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In 1869, the social class system was abolished, and with them, class-specific sumptuary laws.{{r|Valk|p=113}} Kimono with formerly-restricted elements, like red and purple colours, became popular,{{r|Valk|p=147}} particularly with the advent of synthetic dyestuffs such as [[mauvine]].

Following the opening of Japan's borders in the early Meiji period to Western trade, a number of materials and techniques - such as wool and the use of synthetic dyestuffs - became popular, with casual wool kimono being relatively common in pre-1960s Japan; the use of safflower dye ({{transliteration|ja|beni}}) for silk linings fabrics (known as {{transliteration|ja|momi}}; literally, "red silk") was also common in pre-1960s Japan, making kimono from this era easily identifiable.

During the [[Meiji period]], the opening of Japan to Western trade after the enclosure of the Edo period led to a drive towards Western dress as a sign of "modernity". After an edict by [[Emperor Meiji]],{{citation needed|reason=Previously given reference of "Edict 399 in the year 1871" does not support the abolition of kimono in certain job roles|date=February 2020}} policemen, railroad workers and teachers moved to wearing Western clothing within their job roles, with the adoption of Western clothing by men in Japan happening at a much greater pace than by women. Initiatives such as the {{nihongo|Tokyo Women's & Children's Wear Manufacturers' Association|東京婦人子供服組合}} promoted Western dress as everyday clothing.

In Japan, modern Japanese fashion history might be conceived as a gradual [[westernization]] of Japanese clothes; both the woolen and worsted industries in Japan originated as a product of Japan's re-established contact with the West in the early Meiji period (1850s-1860s). Before the 1860s, Japanese clothing consisted entirely of [[kimono]] of a number of varieties.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

With the opening of Japan's ports for international trade in the 1860s, clothing from a number of different cultures arrived as exports; despite Japan's historic contact with the Dutch before this time through its southerly ports, Western clothing had not caught on, despite the study of and fascination with Dutch technologies and writings.

The first Japanese to adopt Western clothing were officers and men of some units of the shōgun's army and navy; sometime in the 1850s, these men adopted woolen uniforms worn by the English marines stationed at Yokohama. Wool was difficult to produce domestically, with the cloth having to be imported. Outside of the military, other early adoptions of Western dress were mostly within the public sector, and typically entirely male, with women continuing to wear kimono both inside and outside of the home, and men changing into the kimono usually within the home for comfort.<ref name=Jackson95>Jackson, Anna. "Kimono: Fashioning Culture by Liza Dalby". Rev. of Kimono: Fashioning Culture. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 58 (1995): 419-20. JSTOR. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.</ref>

From this point on, Western clothing styles spread outwards of the military and upper public sectors, with courtiers and bureaucrats urged to adopt Western clothing, promoted as both modern and more practical. The [[Ministry of Education]] ordered that Western-style student uniforms be worn in public colleges and universities. Businessmen, teachers, doctors, bankers, and other leaders of the new society wore suits to work and at large social functions. Despite Western clothing becoming popular within the workplace, in schools and on the streets, it was not worn by everybody, and was actively considered uncomfortable and undesirable by some; one account tells of a father promising to buy his daughters new kimono as a reward for wearing Western clothing and eating meat.<ref>Dalby, Liza. (Mar 1995) "Kimono: Fashioning Culture".</ref> By the 1890s, appetite for Western dress as a fashion statement had cooled considerably, and the kimono remained an item of fashion.

A number of different fashions from the West arrived and were also incorporated into the way that people wore kimono; numerous woodblock prints from the later Meiji period show men wearing bowler hats and carrying Western-style umbrellas whilst wearing kimono, and Gibson girl hairstyles - typically a large bun on top of a relatively wide hairstyle, similar to the Japanese {{transliteration|ja|[[nihongami]]}} - became popular amongst Japanese women as a more low-effort hairstyle for everyday life.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Western dress had become a symbol of social dignity and progressiveness; however, the kimono was still considered to be fashion, with the two styles of dress essentially growing in parallel with one another over time. With Western dress being considered street wear and a more formal display of fashionable clothing, most Japanese people wore the comfortable kimono at home and when out of the public eye.<ref name=Jackson95/>