By Olivia Ghantous
Summary from "Japan vs. Lithuania," James Sterngold, The New York Times, August 1992
In August of 1992, two avant-garde Japanese fashion superstars met on the athletic fields of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona — but they weren’t competing for medals. Rather they were there to see which of the national uniforms they had designed best captured the spirit of contemporary Japanese fashion.
Was it to be seen on the Japanese team, those prim images of propriety defined by Hanae Mori, the reigning Japanese fashion matron: walking Japanese flags in buttoned-down suits?
Or was It in the assertively hip, high-tech uniform of the Lithuanians, who hid as much as they showed in the minutely pleated signature of its Japanese creator, Issey Miyake?
