Women Wearing the Wind: Urban Skin Texture and the Revolution of Models (ca. 1970)

Women Wearing the Wind: Urban Skin Texture and the Revolution of Models (ca. 1970)

Around 1970, a buzz was born in Japan's cities. Young women in miniskirts, long boots, and sharp eyeliner glided down the streets, and show windows and magazine pages were full of them. Fashion models were being transformed from being clothed into being clothed in the spirit of the times. The meaning of the word "model" was being renewed through their gestures and silent expressions.

Reiko Aso's words, "I don't know Hanamori Yasuharu," were a declaration of this newness. As editor-in-chief of Kurashi no Techo, Hanamori's philosophy of postwar decency and simple living as virtues was once synonymous with "correctness" in Japan. However, Reiko's casual remark was an indication of her intention to bury it as a value of the past. It was no longer about correctness, but about beauty and freedom.

Just before Sayoko Yamaguchi took to the world stage wearing a faceless mask, Miki Tsunaki and Reiko Aso appeared against the backdrop of urban magazine culture. Their bodies were not mere fabrics on which to stand, but rather canvases on which to reflect the memories and dreams of the city. With the launch of "anan" magazine, the models' gazes and postures became a beacon in the process of awakening readers to the idea of "women as individuals," rather than as "housewives.

In addition, women like Yoko Kirishima emerged to show the world their own way of life as "models. Her presence, which established a new image of women as mothers and travelers who threw themselves into consumer society, spoke of independence, and resonated with the silence of fashion models, paved the way for a revolution through words.

In the midst of this upheaval, Hanamori Yasuji's "aesthetics without advertisements" was pushed somewhere in the distance. The gaze on life was soon superimposed behind the show windows and lenses, and a new ethics and beauty crystallized in posture and style. Fashion models were changing the way we see the world, without speaking out, but certainly changing the way we see the world.