Through her wide-ranging career, Eiko Ishioka (1938–2012) moved effortlessly between the roles of graphic designer, art director, and Oscar-winning costume designer. The Tokyo-born creative approached each discipline fearlessly, and her work always carried the same unmistakable intensity—bold imagery, sensuality, and a provocative gaze.
Through her wide-ranging career, Eiko Ishioka (1938–2012) moved effortlessly between the roles of graphic designer, art director, and Oscar-winning costume designer. The Tokyo-born creative approached each discipline fearlessly, and her work always carried the same unmistakable intensity—bold imagery, sensuality, and a provocative gaze.
Eiko Ishioka. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.
Eiko Ishioka. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.
She began her career as a designer in the advertising department of the cosmetics company Shiseido, where she helped overturn the conventions of Japanese advertising, replacing delicate illustrations with hyper-real photographic imagery that felt fresh, confrontational, and strikingly modern.
She began her career as a designer in the advertising department of the cosmetics company Shiseido, where she helped overturn the conventions of Japanese advertising, replacing delicate illustrations with hyper-real photographic imagery that felt fresh, confrontational, and strikingly modern.
Through her campaigns for Shiseido and later the Parco department store, Eiko recast the Japanese woman as self-assured and confident—unafraid to hold the viewer’s gaze—at a time in Japan when women were treated as submissive or ornamental. With taglines like “Girls Be Ambitious!” and “Women! Turn Off Your TV Sets! Women! Close Your Magazines!” her campaigns urged women to reimagine their role and place in society. Irrespective of which medium she worked with, Eiko used her creativity as a tool to challenge social conventions, raising questions about race, gender, and autonomy. That rebellious sensibility extended across everything she touched, from book covers and magazine art direction to the surreal costumes she later designed for films like Dracula (1992), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Eiko approached each medium as part of the same creative universe, once declaring, “Everywhere on Earth is my studio. Everything on Earth is my material.”
Through her campaigns for Shiseido and later the Parco department store, Eiko recast the Japanese woman as self-assured and confident—unafraid to hold the viewer’s gaze—at a time in Japan when women were treated as submissive or ornamental. With taglines like “Girls Be Ambitious!” and “Women! Turn Off Your TV Sets! Women! Close Your Magazines!” her campaigns urged women to reimagine their role and place in society. Irrespective of which medium she worked with, Eiko used her creativity as a tool to challenge social conventions, raising questions about race, gender, and autonomy. That rebellious sensibility extended across everything she touched, from book covers and magazine art direction to the surreal costumes she later designed for films like Dracula (1992), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Eiko approached each medium as part of the same creative universe, once declaring, “Everywhere on Earth is my studio. Everything on Earth is my material.”
Installation view of Shiseido posters from “Eiko Ishioka_ Blood, Sweat, and Tears—A Life of Design”, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Photo by Kenji Morita.
Installation view of Shiseido posters from “Eiko Ishioka_ Blood, Sweat, and Tears—A Life of Design”, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Photo by Kenji Morita.
"Can West Wear East?" (Parco, 1979). Image Courtesy of DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.
Cover for Yasei Jidai, November 1976. Image Courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
Cover for Yasei Jidai, August 1976. Image Courtesy of Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation.