In 1981, while Western designers focused on shoulder-padded power suits, bright colors, sharp stiletto heels and statement jewelry, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo sent their models down the runway in defiant black, voluminously draped garments, accessorized with nothing but flat shoes. It was the Paris debut of both Japanese designers, and they utterly confused and stunned their peers. Yamamoto's garments were dubbed "crow-like" and "monastic," Kawakubo's "Hiroshima chic" and "post-atomic." And the critics loved it all.

"Back then, Western fashion focused on body-conscious looks in beautiful colors. But Japanese fashion was monotone — almost all black — and some garments even had holes or looked worn out and old," says Akiko Fukai, the lead curator of "Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion," now showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. "Before, Japanese fashion didn't have an identity abroad. After 1981, people could actually say 'that's Japanese style.' "

This is where "Future Beauty" begins, with Yamamoto's minimalist looks and Kawakubo's distressed fabrics alongside works of other Japanese designers who, from the '80s onward, continued to surprise the West with garments that defied existing trends, while creating new ones. The first section of the show, titled "In Praise of Shadows" after author Junichiro Tanizaki's essay on light and dark in Western and Japanese aesthetics, reveals a diversity of details emphasized by the monotone. The pieces may have a similar overall aesthetic, but up close they reveal techniques that set them apart.