The amazing Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition is now open at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane and thanks to my artist friend Leigh Wagner I had the privilege of being at last night’s official opening.

It was inspiring to see the shapes and construction techniques in the photos below – with Leigh below left – and to meet local creatives such as the gorgeous Mary Dickinson (photographed with me bottom right below, in Sew 285).

According to the GOMA website “Future Beauty explores the tremendous innovation of Japanese fashion designers from the early 1980s to the present. With nearly 100 garments featured in the exhibition, ranging from the classic and elegant to outrageous, this will be a fascinating experience and rare opportunity to view these unique creations first hand.”

It says Japanese fashion made an enormous impact on world fashion in the late 20th century and designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto revolutionised fashion thinking today.

On a local and less ambitious level, Sew 305 is a simple upcycle of an unworn long skirt, created by bright teenager Emily at our home-schooling refashion workshop last week.

All that was required was cutting out two purple-coloured shoulder straps from a t-shirt offcut, then sewing them to the front and back to the gathered skirt waistband – turning it into a comfortable and cool shift dress.