The complex cut of the famous Great Coat is a significant example and makes Charles James’ artistic approach of draping comprehensible. Working on this surface, he was able to extract an infinite variety of patterns from this basic shape by dissecting it in multiple ways. He used wide black tape or seam binding to create alternate seaming for new variations of the stuffed garment, all the while retaining the original shape.
Another astonishing aspect regarding the subject of Japonism is that Charles James, without knowing the specific concept of “Ma” from Japanese aesthe- tics, developed, so to speak, this “Ma” in conjunction with his expression “the wall of air between the body and the fabric.” “Ma” describes in the broadest sense the gap, the space, the resting space, or break between two different components or states. No less a figure than Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake is committed to this traditional Japanese aesthetic doctrine of “Ma.” With respect to body and clothing, Miyake refers to the space and/or time between body and clothing that theater and also generates tension and energy.