Can West Wear East
This is an advertisement for the Parco brand created by designer Eiko Ishioka. The ad features the designer's nieces dressed in striking red kimonos and kabuki makeup, standing alongside an American woman wearing a Japanese-influenced futuristic dress. The eerie and captivating beauty of the ad goes beyond the realm of avant-garde. The woman in the image is positioned and colored in a manner that suggests religious symbolism. Her attire is visually jarring, and she stands ominously behind the young girls without a smile. The woman is not a young American girl trying to fit in with her Japanese peers but rather a grown woman who could be either protecting or exploiting the children.
