Relay Column: Travel & Fashion – Between the Ordinary & the Extraordinary (Saki Nabekura)

What to Wear on a Trip

When people leave home for a trip for a certain period, what do they wear?

What will you wear and what will you pack as you head to your destination? When considering the contents of your luggage, functionality and practicality are likely to be the primary considerations. Clothing and personal items are selected based on the purpose of the trip, such as business or tourism, the itinerary, and the climate of the destination. On the other hand, in tourism settings, not only practicality but also a performative aspect can become prominent. Examples of fashionable choices that enhance the trip, chosen according to different criteria than practicality, include resort fashion, the increasingly popular rental kimono or hanbok for walking around towns, and wearing "uniforms" or coordinating outfits at Disneyland.

The relationship between travel and fashion is profound and diverse. However, discussions on this theme have not been well-established so far. In this column, I would like to explore, from the perspective of a researcher of tourism and mobility, particularly focusing on tourists' fashion, emphasizing its elements of the extraordinary and the everyday.

Tourism is generally considered to occur in an extraordinary realm separate from everyday life. In the field of the humanities and social sciences, tourism has been discussed as a phenomenon that undergoes transitions similar to rites of passage or pilgrimages, moving from the secular to the sacred and back to the secular (Smith ed. 1989=2018). Following this common understanding, I would like to first consider the issue of travel and fashion from its extraordinary nature, starting with the topic of "formal wear" for travelers［1］.

Travel = A Special Occasion

In modern times, we have a degree of freedom in choosing our attire while traveling. However, in the early 20th century, when citizens were still unfamiliar with travel, it was common to select visually pleasing formal wear for trips. For instance, historian Teruo Ariyama notes that during the Manchuria and Korea tours organized after the Russo-Japanese War, the Asahi Shimbun, the organizer, actively showcased models of clothing and personal items. The articles stated that "Western clothes" were preferable for men upon landing, and various personal items to maintain cleanliness were introduced, based on the assumption of local uncleanliness. These announcements served not only to provide new knowledge to participants with little overseas travel experience but also to promote Japan as a civilized country by demonstrating Western standards of attire and behavior at travel destinations, thus creating an image of the "ideal overseas traveler" (Ariyama 2002: 56-8).

Similarly, in the domestic travel of women that expanded after World War II, a similar trend was observed. For example, while it was common for women from rural areas to wear traditional Japanese clothing, the kimonos chosen were said to be luxurious garments, second only to those worn for ceremonial occasions (Yamamoto 2021: 289). At that time, the roads and restrooms in various travel destinations were not always well-maintained, leading to a high possibility of clothes getting dirty. Nonetheless, people still donned fine kimonos to go sightseeing.

This history of formal attire indicates that travel was once strongly characterized as a special occasion separate from daily life, where the choice of clothing was based on the premise of being observed by others. What emerged was a performance aimed at shaping the unseasoned tourist into a "model traveler." However, beginning in the 1970s, with economic development, improvements in transportation networks, and changing social attitudes toward tourism, the awareness of wearing formal attire while traveling gradually weakened, and clothing transitioned to more comfortable options.