Japan's fashion elite, firstly inaugurated in Europe as "Hiroshima chic" or "ragged chic" representatives, have turned the notion of fashion as structured, sexy and glamorous on its head. Their vision of women, and also men, as independent, intelligent, liberated artisans has elevated their status to that of fashion legends. The sensation caused by Rei Kawakubo's Paris debut in 1981 with fellow Japanese Yohji Yamamoto, where they were presenting a fierce rebuttal to the body-conscious, sexy, silhouettes of the 1980s, has transfixed and shocked the experts, however, within a very short period of time, this shock turned to admiration.