Yohji Yamamoto (Q3716)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Yohji Yamamoto is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yohji Yamamoto |
Yohji Yamamoto is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
1981
fashion designer
hat designer
1990
fragrance producer
It might be tempting to read a kind of mad romance from this collection. Exceptional manipulations of fabrics—knotted at the bust or below the hips, placed as though torn, assembled in strips, pieced back together—possibly conjured a woman reconstructing a new version of herself from whatever materials she had left around her. The buckled straps dangling extra-long; unreadable words scrawled down leggings; jagged edges jutting out from skirts. The sharp-winged, smoky shadow encircling only one eye and partial lace veils. This show contained the duality of fragility and empowerment that other designers have been exploring this season.“Very dreamy but also quite dark,” was how renowned pianist Pavel Kolesnikov described the sorrowful-to-sentimental arrangement of Bach, Gluck, Ravel and Japanese compositions that he played live at the edge of the runway until the last section of the show that was accompanied by a recording of Yamamoto sampling Leonard Cohen’sYou Want It Darker. “Vilified, crucified, in the human frame / A million candles burning for the help that never came…”Where was Yohji Yamamoto taking us this season? Not shuffling off this mortal coil, apparently. He attributed these “broken outfits” to a more naïve source. “Kids, they made it!” he said, smiling and especially upbeat. So then the intention was playful? “Playful, maybe, but it was very hard to play.”And this was certainly something other than child’s play. Not only did the looks burst forth with different foiled, felted, and floaty textures, they also did not adhere to any conventional notions of construction. Yet the models nestled their hands within cutout bits and were unencumbered by the twisting cords and extended volumes (reimagined hoop skirts, similar to those at Loewe earlier today, channeled the past as envisioned by the future). One standout dress in white lace layered with a dark gauzy pinstripe that extended from a portrait collar to a sweeping train was positively grown-up and gorgeous.By now, we know that contradictory impulses and expressions are inherent to Yamamoto’s body of work. This is how monochromatic, blobby shapes loosely tacked onto a dress can somehow appear sophisticated, or how swirls of denim and jacquard looked simultaneously opulent and arte povera. Interestingly, the vast variety of fabrics made me think that they had come from years and years of previous collections. Yamamoto’s reply, “Very good and bad question. We made them.
”At this point in his career and his life, and with a yet another book (in collaboration with M/M Paris) debuting Sunday, Yamamoto is still finding ways to challenge himself. It was Picasso who famously said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to draw like a child.” The beauty of this collection was that the complexity and intuition came through in equal measure.A series of loosely constructed looks in an arresting shade of red brought the show to a somewhat blunt close, almost like a statement unspoken. For architect Jean Nouvel, the collection summoned the kind of beauty that was “at once sober and styled.” The interpretation of a Yamamoto show might always hover in the realm of the subjective. But the admiration—based on the overwhelming applause as the designer took an extended bow with Kolesnikov—well, that is collective.
27 September 2024
Yohji Yamamoto had already sung and recorded a version of “Comment te dire adieu” when the world learned that Françoise Hardy had died. That his show opened with her era-defining song on the same day that her funeral took place across town was purely happenstance. But then what about the choice of the song, which translates as “How to say goodbye?” Surely Yamamoto was not sending a message? “No, of course not!” he replied emphatically, as all of us huddling around him breathed a sigh of relief.Standing by his side was Charlotte Rampling, who made a surprise runway appearance minutes earlier. The esteemed British actress had walked for Yamamoto once before, at the fall 1998 show; both instances, men’s collections. Today, projecting mature, androgynous insouciance with her slight figure, fedora, and black shades, she first wore roomy, windowpane check pants held up by suspenders, a simple round-neck top and tennis shoes. Her finale look comprised a white shirt with a noticeably uneven hemline as if buttoned incorrectly, its surface covered in writing and a sketch in her likeness—drawn by Yohji-san, of course.“The way he draws is the way he writes stories,” said Matthias Augustyniak of M/M Paris, whose own drawings have birthed brand logos and who is working on a book project for the designer. “It’s like his notebook.” Whether one could read Japanese or not, Rampling’s shirt looked like ultra-soft T-shirt fabric, and was just one example of the weightless feel of this show.Where the women’s collection last season revolved around Cubism-inspired constructions, this lineup was free of defined forms. Not to say that the clothes were shapeless. Layers in silk and rayon were at once lean and loose, designed to optimize breathability. Robe coats were patterned with openings while certain knits seemed woven from spider silk. “You’re the sunshine of my life,” “Follow me to the end of night,” “Here comes the sun,” and “Le beau est toujours bizarre,” (the beautiful is always strange”) were collaged with photo prints of flowers, black-and-white beatnik types, and advertising graphics. Yet the mass of imagery was offset by the ease of these silhouettes—related to Yamamoto’s ongoing concern about the planet heating up.He also revealed his return to Buddhism in order to make sense of a “world [that] is becoming too dangerous.” Have his studies informed his designs? It’s about asking questions, many questions,” he said.
In the best of ways, Yamamoto’s clothes raise more questions than they answer. We may never understand how he arrives at seemingly infinite deconstructions, yet we know they feel perpetually avant-garde. Accordingly, his devotees are more transgenerational than ever, from the 76-year-old contemporary artist Not Vital spotted in total Yohji for his opening at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac two weeks ago, to Maluma and Rich the Kid in today’s front row. As for why Rampling appreciates the clothes: “It’s because you can’t find [them] anywhere, that’s what I’m drawn to.”
20 June 2024
There was no music to accompany the models as the Yohji Yamamoto show began. With only the sound of their feet gliding down the raised wooden runway and the camera shutters clicking, the dim hush allowed for reflection on how different the Yohji experience is from the rest of fashion—with no paid-to-be-there celebrities and no paparazzi throngs. Not that Yamamoto, who is now 80 and who has been putting on runway shows for over 40 years, was lacking for notable attendees. Diana Widmaier Picasso and Klaus Biesenbach sat in the front row, near the French artist Orlan, the musician Warren Ellis (who walked the designer’s men’s runway a month ago), and the milliner Stephen Jones.To start, the collection was all black. The details disappear against the background in these images, but there was nothing flat about Yamamoto’s designs. The coats, dresses, and suits were all embellished with collapsing squares of various kinds, like walking cubist sculptures. Widmaer Picasso’s grandfather, in his cubist period, depicted his subjects from many different perspectives, putting them in deeper, richer, and more complicated context. Yamamoto was up to something related here. Certainly, the woman who wears one of these pieces on the street will get a double-take.Moving along, he played with the similar geometric shapes and volumes in mismatched red and black plaids, or with pinstripes, checks, and tweeds that had a substantial hand-hewn look. In at least one case, one of the larger squares came with a zipper for stowing potential necessities, but function seemed not the point of these experiments. Utility is not what drives Yamamoto as a designer; if his pieces weave themselves into their wearer’s lives it’s for other more esoteric and emotional reasons.Backstage Yamamoto was his usual blend of attentiveness and elusiveness, nodding his head at questions, but providing only short answers. Was he referencing cubism? “Yes.” Looking at Picasso? Actually, “Braque.”To conclude, he sent out a group of five muted gray suits and coats. From the front, these looked like a rejection of the imaginative, experimental constructions that came before, with only pyramidal shoulders adding visual interest. Au contraire. Unfortunately for those witnessing the show only on screen, the front of those looks tells just half of the story.
As the models made their way back down the runway, they paused to pose and show off the lavish bustles—more organic than Braque’s cubist geometries—that decorated their backsides.As it happens, at the Pompidou, there is a black coat dress with a red bustle from a 1989 Yamamoto collection on display in Laurence Benaim’s affecting “La traverse des apparences”exhibitionat the Centre Pompidou. Which brings it back to Stephen Jones. As he waited to say his hello to Yamamoto, the famous hatmaker remarked: “It’s so interesting to see all those things other people have taken over the years from him, but actually see him doing them.” Including many contemporary designers today. “It just looks so fresh.”
2 March 2024
Yohji Yamamoto creates like a painter, an architect, a composer, a singer, a writer. He is a designer with an endless fascination for artists—the individualism, the impulses, and the archetypes.Tonight’s show progressed through movements, through scenes, through chapters, through stanzas. From the loosely knotted poets’ blouse and a coat with peaked shoulders, to the sumptuous attire in velvet and brocade. From the studio uniform of loose jackets and utility vests to the coats with embroidered wording meant to be read. From the tactile motorcycle jackets and blousons in chevron wool atop fluid, longer layers, to the shirts covered in vivid brushwork tucked into suspendered trousers. Dressed in these ensembles were some of his longtime artist collaborators—Wim Wenders and Max Vadukul—along with Warren Ellis, Norman Reedus, and the dancer Brandon Miel Masele. And while they appeared like distinctive personages, they also conjured some essence of the designer himself.“Tale of the Unexpected” wrapped around a baggy pant leg, but this felt like Yamamoto exploring not the unexpected but his own existing body of work. Or else it was a series of reminiscences, like the painted pinup women surfacing from coats. Or perhaps a montage spanning cool dudes with impeccably mussed topknots through equally cool but aging figures. For one of his two strolls down the runway, Vadukul donned a coat with “old bohemian” along the back. Would men consider this a badge of pride, a way of confronting reality with a smirk? “We’re older but that’s the only thing that changes,” the photographer acknowledged backstage. “What we create is still the same.”The show closed with Wenders in trousers printed with his name (Paris Opera ballet dancer Hannah O’Neil’s pants read “Wim wanted me”). YY and WW worked together in 1989 when the director madeNotebook, a documentary about cities and clothes. Yamamoto noted how they were both children born in the aftermath of war-torn cities and have alchemized that darkness into work that has a poetic resonance.If the collection unleashed ideas with a sort of feisty enthusiasm, the pace was calm, and the mood was poignant. The real surprise came from the music. Never mind that Yamamoto is now an octogenarian, his track list leaned towards regained youth. Radiohead’sCreep, Dua Lipa’sLevitating, Taylor Swift’sLover, and most inexplicably,The Little Drummer Boy—all sung as slowed-down, bluesy covers by either a female singer or the designer himself.
When a journalist inquired how he chose these songs, Yamamoto asked him in return, “How did they make you feel?” He is more of a romantic than he will admit. But we see through all those meticulously deconstructed layers. For when he tips his black cap at the end of each show, it is a composite hat of unwavering artistry that fashion’s old and new guard applaud, knowing that he designs with the kind of rigor, interest, and emotional depth that will outlive us all.
18 January 2024
He may not want people to know this, but on October 3, Yohji Yamamoto will turn 80. The collection he presented this evening signaled that his ardor to create is undiminished. And in part because he has been at it for 40-plus years, the audience he attracts to the ornate salons of the Hôtel de Ville come with their reverence.His admirers can range from institutional heavyweights to fellow non-conformists. Juergen Teller and Kid Super’s Colm Dillane stood out in the front row, while Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, Trudie Styler, Max Vadukul, and Guram Gvasalia were among the well-wishers backstage, where Yamamoto explained that, despite a career defined by avant-garde design, he hates looking back to his own work.And yet, this experimentally rich lineup suggested that he is not opposed to looking back to the canonical couturiers. Citing Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga, he said he wanted to examine and remix their codes in his distinct way. Although there were familiar silhouettes accented with spectator-style footwear and chain link belts boasting double Ys, it wasn’t about homage, as it was in 1997 when he did an entire collection dedicated to Chanel.From the opening—restrained black silhouettes over white shirts with peaked shoulders—to the more elaborate juxtapositions of light suiting cloaked in delicate lace further on, this was more like a reminder that fashion can feel original even as it iterates upon existing ideas. The fact that he sung a cover of The Beatles’s “Come Together,” riffing on the recognizable guitar chords, as part of the soundtrack, further drove this home (side note: someone really needs to produce a Yohji album).To most eyes, the Yamamoto of today may not appear fundamentally different from five, 10, or 15 years ago. But actually, he is indefatigable, and the newness of his deconstructed silhouettes and relaxed reworkings of historical dress is in the nuance. “When I start designing, I don’t know whether something will be new,” he said.It seems that he has, however, grown tired of color, and he reverted back to black this season and explored its limitless applications much the same way Pierre Soulages would consider the light and dark of black throughout his paintings. There were looks so layered with pleats and tucks that they took the black into multi-dimensions and then there were varying applications of sheer fabric—right down to the derbies faintly revealing the feet—that resulted in beautiful, weightless shapes.
Plus, as he noted, black “makes a strong connection with the women’s body,” gesturing the same angled necklines of the final looks across this writer’s neckline.The ever-present awe of Yamamoto’s designs is that they raise a multitude of questions without providing answers. Were the loose threads, origami-like volumes, and irregular patterns of polka dots the result of spontaneity, or were they each a studied flourish? What’s clear is that, despite the signature slow stride of his models, Yamamoto himself still shows no sign of slowing down.
30 September 2023
Bright gray and white fabrics were paired with black to represent the contrast between light and dark. “My daughter went to a Bob Dylan concert that I couldn’t go to because of back pains,” said Yohji Yamamoto backstage. She told me the whole set was dark apart from a light on the stage and it made me think of contrasting darkness and light together.”The collection’s many prints (of which there was one too many of Yohji’s face) were influenced by art books dating from the Middle Ages to the current day. He was inspired by the differences in the architecture and art of each period and wanted to create patterns that could represent all eras merged into one.Despite building an oeuvre consisting mainly of black garments, Yamamoto has moved to include more color in recent seasons. When asked about this season’s colors, Yamamoto’s face brightened up as he explained that the red looks represented blood. “There is so much going wrong in the world; when I think of all these bad things I just think of blood,” he explained.As for the text printed on the back of a long flowy coat that read, “Oh you look ugly,” he said, “I want people to appreciate the contrast between beautiful and ugly, I like my work having a rawness to it.” It’s not a new concept from Yohji, whose followers will remember that he once said, “I think perfection is ugly.”Wide trousers, waistcoats, and coats were held together with stitches and enlarged safety pins, blazer lapels came with unfinished edges, and spare fabrics were sewn onto clothes like embroideries, ensuring Yamamoto’s edginess remained present in every piece. It’s very difficult to create unfinished garments that look well made. It’s a testament to Yamamoto’s design acumen that you can see the skill that goes into creating that balance between rawness and perfection.
22 June 2023
Tonight’s Yohji Yamamoto show opened with the designer himself singing Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” on the soundtrack. The singer once said that the song was an answer of sorts to the perennial question, “what does a woman want?” Cohen was on the side of flexibility: “If you want a lover /I’ll do anything you ask me to / And if you want another kind of love / I’ll wear a mask for you.” Forty-odd years into his career, Yamamoto takes a more resolute approach to his output.This collection told a new version of a familiar story. Yamamoto works almost exclusively in the color black, though he did use red and white as accents this season. At a moment when fashion is coming back around to deconstruction, no one does it with more conviction than he does. Bias-cut shirt dresses were fixed with sculpted pieces of leather, and skirts unpeeled into twisting masses of raw-edged flaps, while necklaces appeared to be made from pocket-sized swatches of scrap fabric strung from leather cord—now that’s how to reduce and reuse excess materials. And he’s still chasing imperfect beauty, what with the spots painted onto models’ faces, their mussed hair, and the clothes’ asymmetries and odd layers, though the final looks, trimmed with lozenges of beads, did have an appealing simplicity.The backs of several of the jackets were canvases for painterly silk screens. More interesting was the embroidery on a zip-front shirt that starred Yamamoto, his trademark hat in place and in his hands on his treasured guitar. The final song on the soundtrack was in Japanese. A friendly colleague offered this loose translation: “It’s a mixed feeling song—a story about a man getting old and he’s sad about it, but at the same time he’s content and happy with what he’s achieved.” A bittersweet melody.
3 March 2023
Yohji Yamamoto’s love of the mix applies equally to music and fashion—a guitarist, composer and singer who has given concerts himself, he personally tended to a playlist that segued from jazz to gypsy and Middle Eastern sounds. There was a precise reason for that: this collection sprang from the designer’s admiration for the melting pot of civilizations and languages in ancient and Middle Europe. His sartorial reinterpretation of those currents manifested a journey down the Silk Road, its cultural richness, spirit and diversity resurrected in a lush display of intricately developed fabrics and finishes.Pieces made of noble materials, including several types of Japanese silk, velvet, and thick brocade in resonant, shadowy hues, were layered one atop the other in considered measure. The most technically complex development was a double-faced fabric printed not once but twice with two completely different ikat motifs; that appeared as jackets, trousers and coats that themselves symbolized the age-old cross-pollination of Asian and European cultures. A silver claw cuff evoked falconry, an iconic Arabian sport that spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and is still practiced in Uzbek culture.Fall is shaping up to be about the narrow jacket. At Yamamoto, it came embellished with a flurry of straps or, in the case of a couple pieces, looser, single-breasted and checked, with artisanal embroidery on the breast pockets. Elsewhere, jackets presented a restrained explosion of flouncing here and there, or seemingly freestyle flourishes in contrasting white. (Asked about those, the designer offered simply, “I wanted to do something unprofessional.”) Japanese denim, too, was worked in unexpected and less casual ways, as a trench or a sweeping cape.At 79, Yamamoto feels he still has many horizons yet to explore. “Culture is a mix of everything,” he said. “There is no border with materials.”
20 January 2023
There were spillover crowds at tonight’s Yohji Yamamoto show. Maybe it’s because Yohji is in the air again, with younger designers reexamining his 1990s oeuvre. Maybe it’s because Yamamoto turns 79 next week and there are questions about retirement and succession. The designer emerged for his bow as spry as ever, so perhaps such talk is premature. Giorgio Armani has 10 years on Yamamoto, and Ralph Lauren has five, and they’re both still working.And yet the music at Yamamoto’s show, at least the songs I could recognize, were a reminder of time’s passing. Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” and CSNY’s “Four Dead in Ohio” are 50 and 51 years old respectively. It was Yamamoto’s voice on the soundtrack, and most of the songs he sang were in his native Japanese.The show was a meditation on Yohji-isms, presented slowly and with care. You could almost feel the collective exhalation as the crowd relaxed into its placid rhythm. Yamamoto does not design for the social media moment; he’s not concerned with going viral. He’s a designer who’s inward-focused, measuring collections only against his own four-decade body of work. It started with tailoring, as his shows tend to do. This season’s jackets have folds and flaps like intricate origami patterns, with portrait collars, narrowed waists, and flared or peplum hems. Here and there a flash of white turned up, usually on the underside of an asymmetrically draped and ruffled shirt. The collection’s prints, when they eventually materialized, were abstract and painterly in earthy colors, or else they reproduced Japanese calligraphy.More often than not, Yamamoto stuck with his tried-and-true black, creating visual interest with elaborate, oblique strapping or baroque cut-outs. A pair of hourglass silhouettes with lace elements and layered skirts were delicate standouts. Time passes, but Yamamoto’s graceful lines spring eternal.
30 September 2022
Yohji Yamamoto was 15 in 1958 when Elvis Presley—the man of the moment—released the hit “Trouble.” The song, which includes the lyrics, “Because I’m evil, my middle name is misery (yeah, yeah) / Well, I’m evil, so don’t you mess around with me,” was included on the soundtrack to the designer’s spring 2023 menswear show, as was the elegiac “Danny Boy.”Whether or not the playlist was intended as a “breadcrumb,” there are few other clues to follow to get at the meaning of the collection—if indeed there is one. Sometimes a suit is just a suit. For several seasons now, Yamamoto has used his menswear looks like chalkboards or empty walls which he “tags” with fragments and phrases. “What are you made of?” “Shitty life,” and “I’m so bored with rules,” were some of this season’s snippets. The last one could be read as a mantra; Yamamoto, a rebel with a cause, has always walked his own path, and continues to do so as he nears 80.This collection was as much about fabrics and materialization as construction, however. Yamamoto’s palette was unusually vivid, and there were almost-psychedelic appliqués mixed with prints to kaleidoscopic effect, and artfully patched suits on ivory ground. Layering is key to the Yohji look and this season pleated half skirts and aprons were worn with loose trousers or built into outerwear.The models, not all of whom were striplings, had gray streaks in their hair. Could this have been Yamamoto addressing the taboo around age which persists in fashion? More generally, time is an important theme in his work, and the designer is engaged in a dialogue with the past (see last season’s Dickensian tale), but in a way that moves tradition forward. Sometimes he does that by combining elements from East and West, other times that was achieved by way of an “inside job,” i.e. rethinking and reworking traditional tailoring. Yamamoto’s designs don’t just look different, they’re built different. You might just say that this collection was bad (meaning good) to the bone.
23 June 2022
Yohji Yamamoto is a man who makes his own weather. That thought came to mind at the end of his show when he sent out a pair of models in heavy sweaters swaddled several layers deep and umbrella hats with long strands of yarn fringing them like falling rain. Fashion has been buffeted by change. The pandemic has prevented some of Yamamoto’s Japanese peers from returning to Paris, and meanwhile a new generation of digital-native designers is moving to the metaverse. The trend cycle just keeps spinning faster. But a Yohji show is unchanging: the models padding out on flat boots or trainers at a stately pace so that every graceful cut and artful twist and drape of his densely layered looks can be appreciated.Tonight’s show began with an exploration of denim, cut into cropped versions of the familiar jean jacket or draped into asymmetrical shirtdresses, short in front and long in back, or with an irregular hem. Some pieces were bleached with a ghostly apparition. White cotton shirts got the Yohji treatment too. They came with cowl-necks or long jabots or crisscrossed at the torso as if a giant napkin had been tucked into a collar. And his tailoring was as expressive as usual, every jacket an exercise in deconstruction, and each one subtly different. The most outspoken pieces in the collection were the puffer jackets with couture-like volumes, though the patchworks of black lace that he shaped into a dress and egg-shaped skirt or simply tied around the shoulders like a shawl were a close second.Yamamoto’s codes are currently in vogue. The trend cycle has come around to the romance of his graceful shapes; you can see evidence of it on other Paris runways. But when the cycle spins again, you can count on Yohji himself to keep the flame alive.
4 March 2022
There was a home and away feeling to Yohji Yamamoto’s fall collection, which was staged in his Aoyoma flagship store in Tokyo rather than Paris due to COVID. The inclusion of five well-known Japanese actors in the cast gave the goings-on a local spin, and the clothing found Yamamoto clearly relaxed, secure in his talent.Yamamoto was among the first Japanese designers to achieve global recognition. He made Paris and New York debuts in 1981 and 1983 respectively, and won quick acclaim for his lyrical fusion of East and West. For fall, this played out most directly in pieces like overcoats featuring prints developed around the artwork of the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński (noted for his dystopian surrealism) and Japanese calligraphy. But it extended way beyond surface gloss into the pattern-making and cutting as well. Much of the collection was inspired by 19th-century menswear. The styling was positively Dickensian—exposed seams with hanging threads mimicked the patina of the lived-in work clothes of a chimney sweep, and models wore jauntily tied ascots and waistcoats. But the individual elements—roomy coats, cargo pockets, layered pants, big boots—could be worn right off the runway and look flawless and current on the street.The romanticism of this part of the collection was balanced by patches of leopard spots, which appeared on black suits and coats, to signal Yamamoto’s continued devotion to the cult of punk. The makeup brought to mind Edward Scissorhands, but with a twist: The models’ powdered hair conjured both ashes and age. Yamamoto is 78, and the actors he casted were silver foxes, not cubs.It might be too much to say that age is a taboo subject in fashion, but the industry is distinctly youth-centric and always chasing the new. Designers’ current focus on upcycling is demonstrating that what is old might not be passé, at least when it comes to material objects. Yamamoto made that point by adding Japanese characters to the back of a coat that translate to something like “beginning of the third age.”This collection was at once innovative and comfortingly consistent. In these crazy days, we have a real need for pillars of strength and integrity, and Yamamoto stands for both. He has an enormous body of work on which to draw and wisdom to impart. The time-traveling aspects of this collection, referencing Artful Dodgers and other rebels, remind us of our connection to the past, and a shared history that comes from storytelling.
20 January 2022
It was 40 years ago this year that Yohji Yamamoto debuted on the Paris runway. Few designers let an anniversary of that magnitude go uncelebrated, but unlike many of his peers, Yamamoto is committed to his own point of view and unperturbed by the fluctuations of the industry. But at a spry 77 he’s not averse to change—or to humor. Speaking about his concerns around global warming after the show, he pointed to the collection’s short skirts. “It’s the first time I’ve done minis,” he said with a chuckle.There were also open necklines and bare arms—the better to dress in hotter weather—and natural fibers like linen and cotton. Those fabrics gave the collection a more casual mien that usual, but the draping, twisting, tucking, and pleating that are the Yohji signatures were far from workaday. The opening dresses were elegant in their bias-cut asymmetry. Though they glided out on sneakers and other flat shoes, they could easily stand up to higher heels should the occasion require.A group of black trenches followed. They were more orderly, but they weren’t conventional, with their short sleeves and dramatic storm flaps. Ever the contrarian, Yamamoto paired the minis with understated, rather plain button-downs. They were followed by a couple of shapely black-and-white jackets worn with stirrup leggings (both very now and very then) and a truly lovely series of dresses in cascades of expanding and collapsing draped volumes, some in mixed prints.The show ended with a trio of models in hoop skirts with exposed undercarriages. They conjured a pair of collections from peak-era Yamamoto a little over 20 years ago, only where those hoop skirts were famously made with inflatable rafts or bamboo that looked light enough to float, these were crisscrossed with metal bars. We’re living through heavy times, but for the length of the show Yamamoto’s innate grace could make you forget.
1 October 2021
The “party like it’s 1999”—and post it on TikTok—vibe that’s pulsing through the menswear collections this season is not to be found at Yohji Yamamoto. The designer seems to be taking a more circumspect view of the world, which, with the Olympics coming to his hometown of Tokyo and worries about new viral strains arising from the occasion, seems very wise indeed. Plus, Yamamoto’s been around long enough to understand the rhythm of cycles, and he tends to prefer to walk in the shadows.His spring show opened with pieces that consider such plays of light—as well as his own considerable output. The show notes said that those ivory and black suits looked back to Yamamoto’s spring 1986 men’s collection. At first glance they may suggest assemblage pieces, an aesthetic that lends itself to upcycling, but that’s not what these were (bricolage came later in the lineup). Rather, the suits were more akin to minimalist artworks; and they had some of the geometric boxiness of a stretched canvas.Here again, Yamamoto followed himself, not the current trend for skimp and skin reveal. Still, there’s a sensuality to the way the volumes of fabrics draped and moved around the fragile bodies of the models. Leaving something to the imagination is powerfully evocative. So are the lyrics of the music Yamamoto composed and played, which spoke of loneliness and trembling hands.Hands and eyes created by the Japanese artist Yuuka Asakura were appliquéd on looks near the end of the show. Both organs are highly symbolic within Surrealist iconography, the latter as a symbol of creation, i.e. the making of art, and the former as a representation of the movement’s focus on exploring and visualizing the psyche, surfacing it through odd juxtapositions of images and words that force the viewer to stop and reconsider accepted knowledge.Here, Surrealist suits were accessorized, if you will, with the punk hair and makeup that are a Yamamoto signature. This fierceness was somewhat of a front; according to the show notes, the protective aspect of the trench was something the designer wanted to focus on this season. Yet even the version with fang-like hardware was made of fabric that wafted around the body, robe-like; another, with a flower on one arm, incorporated elements of the kimono.
24 June 2021
Disconnected from past routines and facing an uncertain future, we live in suspension, unable to avoid uncomfortable truths, like the unequal impact the pandemic has had on women, many of whom have had to abandon their careers to care for their children. Yohji Yamamoto has always been drawn to 19th-century modes and referenced corsets, hoops, bustles, and dressmaking techniques used to mold a woman’s body into some ideal silhouette. He does so again for fall at a time when, the show notes inform us, “Yohji is questioning himself about ‘the future.’” (The 77-year-old designer is giving no interviews this season.)The deliberate disarray of the clothes indicates that he has not come to any conclusions. Observing pieces with artfully hanging strings is something like following the thread of Yamamoto’s thoughts. And these are going, as usual, in several directions at once.For fall there is, as always, a dance between masculine and feminine; oversized peacoats and shrunken nylon bombers share space with many to-the-floor dresses. There’s an East/West angle, with origami-like structures used side by side with European tailoring. This season the pull between past and present is manifest not only in the silhouettes but in the collection film, in which Yamamoto reads a page from his 2010 autobiography,My Dear Bomb. In it he says he has “made clothing entirely in hope of re-creating” the unexpected beauty of a woman in her lover’s white shirt the morning after; the way it embraces and and conforms to her body.Save for stitching, piping, and a print, the collection is rendered entirely black, which is the norm for this designer, who leans toward a dark romance. His heroines this season took on various guises, both penitent and punk. Cutout leggings had a medieval and armorial feeling; lace tops and chains leaned piratical. A spooky print of a hand called Frankenstein to mind.One of the themes of that novel, man’s relation to nature, is quite topical and seems related to Yamamoto’s decision to create clothes that, the notes indicate, “voluntarily give the impression of being unfinished.” This marks an about-face of sorts for the designer, who just over a month ago presented a more strident and outward-looking men’s collection featuring lots of slogans, inspired by the street, that was meant to be “a statement about today’s world.
” In contrast the women’s collection seems more introspective and focused on both the construction of clothes and ideals of women’s beauty, which have often been unattainable. WithFemme Plusprinted on the back of the final look, Yamamoto champions women’s strength. “The potential for women’s clothing is infinite,” is one of the lines he reads from his book.That optimistic message is arrived at through the designer’s pure punk ideology, which manifests as a restless need to challenge the status quo. Though Yamamoto makes use of deconstruction in his work, he does not do so in the same way introduced by the Belgians in the 1990s that is being heavily referenced today as upcycling becomes important. Yamamoto is not physically taking old things apart and putting them back together, but he is playing with fashion history. And he seems comfortable with his collection conveying the feeling of a work in progress; a feat that requires much artfulness. He’s not issuing statements for fall, nor is he tying up loose ends. Instead he offers a kind of screen grab of transformation and becoming, affirming his faith—and hopefully ours—in the power of beauty against all odds.
5 March 2021
“A statement about today’s world.” According to the show notes, that’s the takeaway from Yohji Yamamoto’s fall men’s show, which was presented in a video format. Statements that might be described as rebel yells there were aplenty: Coats and suits were printed and embroidered with random, untethered phrases including “Amazing Grace” and more terrifyingly “Born a Terrorist,” that felt somewhat tired. In contrast, Yamamoto’s own voice—the designer sang to his compositions on most of the soundtrack—was confident and strong, revealing his rock and roll heart.All that said, the best pieces in this lineup spoke for themselves. Draped pants with exaggerated Charlie Chaplin proportions were lyrical; great coats built around the body had an epic quality. The armor-like outerwear, muzzle-style masks, and metal-mesh gloves hinted at a medieval quest, one that intersected with the bravado strut of the jaded punks, dressed all in black and bondage that Yamamoto and his fans never tire of. If these rebels had a cause, it had less to do with the “issues” so fragmentarily spelled out on their clothes, than it did with broadening the spectrum of masculinity.Shrouded in oversized, layered clothes and sporting Edward Scissorhands hair, the models seemed more fragile than ferocious. Two tailored looks featured corseting details that were softening despite their rows of metal hook-and-eye fastenings. Coats as stiff as neoprene had a subtle sparkle like that of the night sky. A shirt was printed with rose petals (or were they guitar picks?) and pants had a fluid motion.The flaw of the video—that its cadence was interrupted by infomercially bits in which style numbers and fabric composition were shown—did serve to reveal that the designer had combined natural fibers with synthetic ones. The notes explained that this was “a souvenir of Yohji Yamamoto’s ’90s Homme design.”This fall collection, we were told, is largely a reflection of the designer’s present-day observations of the streets and the world. However it arrives at a moment when “Old Yohji” is getting some retroactive love online, and Yamamoto is referencing his own oeuvre. Chronology is perhaps not the best framework for appreciating a designer known for his consistency. As my colleague Luke Leitch has noted, “Yamamoto doesn’t change but the world around him does.” In the best pieces in this collection, it is almost possible to feel the designer reaching through the shadows and guiding us through tempests to shelter.
21 January 2021
Yohji Yamamoto arrived in Paris to launch his label nearly 40 years ago. Yet backstage after a show held in the gilded reception hall of the Hôtel de Ville, he seemed unaware of the approaching milestone. “Already?” he said with a flutter of surprise.One couldn’t help wonder at his rapport with time at this point in his career. “Time is not endless, but sometimes I feel endless,” he answered.Such innate perseverance is likely what drove him to carry on with a classic runway presentation even as other Tokyo-based designers—Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, Chitose Abe, and Jun Takahashi—opted against traveling. “People told me I’m crazy,” he quipped, adding that it was important not to overthink things. “As soon as I made the decision to show in Paris, I stopped worrying; just do it.”From the designs he shows to the way in which he shows them, Yamamoto’s singular approach is resonating more than ever. At turns sober and serene, mellow and melancholy, he delivered a lineup that offered respite from a gutting news cycle without disconnecting from reality.To start, a series of white and black looks that gave the impression of splicing indoors and out—like crinkled, draped, and knotted bed linens with remnants of suiting. A series of minimalist, elongated silhouettes followed: weightless tailoring and raw-edged pants and ankle-length shirtdresses freely traced with bias stitching. Gradually, he introduced structure and volume with characteristic randomness—loose belting placed high and low, bustle formations, cage skirts in twisted copper wire, and leaf-like layers suspended in space. If Yamamoto was reinterpreting his repertoire, he nonetheless arrived at new expressions of nonconformity.Meanwhile, models approaching from opposite directions would turn ever so slightly away from each other. The gesture registered respectful, not rude. The collection closed with pieced-together ensembles in white faintly dusted with color. “I’m not an artist who sends a strong political message,” he offered, as always, leaving his collection open to interpretation. “I just wanted to stand on the side of human beings, even if they are not always good.”Indeed, Yamamoto’s presence today felt meaningful—a true commitment not only to his craft and the business that bears his name, but to Paris Fashion Week.
Longtime friends and collaborators made the effort to attend, among them Charlotte Rampling, Martine Sitbon, Marc Ascoli, and Sarah Moon, whose current exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne features several striking photographs of Yamamoto’s creations from the 1990s. Tomorrow Yamamoto happens to be turning 77. Here’s to a happy and healthy birthday, Yohji-san; you have much to celebrate.
2 October 2020
“With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.” Yohji Yamamoto said that to Suzy Menkes nearly a decade ago and ever since (plus long before) this great designer’s path has been constant. Now though seems a particular moment in his quest.Yamamoto doesn’t change but the world around him does. This latest variation of his brand of textured vagabond masculine armor seemed not only as poetic as usual but also more potently true to the moment: as for a Cassandra suddenly believed, a change in context has altered all.By the context I don’t mean the video or lookbook, both of which were beautifully shot yet no substitute for a Yohji show (although it was great not to suffer on those terrible old circus chairs he uses). More the broader context, which is suddenly aligned with the darkness at the heart of his work.On that video we hear Yojhi growling lyrics like a bluesman and—going from the cigarette-y hiss of a nasal inhalation—playing the harmonica too. This mood music (plus the new version of It’s Only Yesterday, a song played at his spring 2019 show that also incorporated its lyrics on clothes) provided a poignant soundtrack to a procession of intricately arranged loose suiting: dark interspersed with punchily colored long tencel military tunics featuring eye-like fastenings, or mixed material Yohji souvenir-print and textile overcoats. You could see in the lingering direction of the movie suggestions of many past Yamamoto moments, a wall that has been painted over many times before being allowed to weather. At the end, as at a normal show, we saw the man protected from a spotlight by his battered felt hat. This time he wore a jacket with the word Fragile embroidered on the back. Strong too.Yohji Yamamoto could not host a show or presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.
10 July 2020
Tonight backstage, Yohji Yamamoto once again alluded to the passing of his fashion “rivals,” and that this continues to stir up loneliness in him. After all, rivalry, even when partnered with friendship, is an excellent stimulus for creators (i.e., the entire Renaissance). Yamamoto might not come across as competitive, yet this collection confirmed that he knows how to pick his battles; for in the absence of his peers, he took on certain notions of time. “I wanted to fight with the 19th century before the 21st century,” he explained.Given his avant-garde vision—the masterful execution, the implicit vulnerability—the past 20 years of fashion must seem prosaic compared to the prospect of corsets and crinolines. And so he adapted their functions and forms to his melancholic silhouettes: off-center lacing on the outside of a coat or up a sleeve, raw-edged or openwork skirts draped like petticoats, and hats stacked with dramatic flair. There were haphazard placements of pleating and ruffles that conveyed a romantic spin on punk. There were larger volumes composed of complex layers and single layers with buttoning systems that produced complex volumes. Padded coats were modeled on historical silhouettes, as though the models had simply rolled out of bed and morphed their duvets into avant-garde period pieces. Several boasted painterly gestures, from graffiti-like tags to abstract brushstrokes. They were gorgeous—and true to Yamamoto’s talents, they impressed from all angles.Lately, Yamamoto has been expressing his concern for the climate, his fascination with millennials, and other externally driven observations. This collection, by contrast, felt like a deliberate return to his undone elegance from the late ’80s, newly treated with the vigor of someone undeterred by mortality. Lacking an explanation of the final look—an anomaly of matted, painted wool in opulent color—we could assign any number of meanings or none at all. The point is that Yamamoto will be iterating until the end and almost always in black, which signifies so much. “Endless repetition and the study of the classics. After that, one can topple the establishment. It is just the same as waging a war,” he wrote inMy Dear Bomb, an autobiography-cum-manifesto published 10 years ago. “The classics stand the test of time.” Yes, dear Yohji-san, yours certainly will.
28 February 2020
The language of Yohji Yamamoto is like none other. It comprises his fashion language built upon dark and poetic draping and deconstruction. It comprises his musical language of wistful electric-guitar improvisations and highly personal lyrics. It comprises his actual language, which is obviously Japanese but has come to include French and English—all delivered with extreme economy of words and drawn-out contemplation. It is a language of multitudes that one longs to understand in its entirety, not in guesswork.But with each new collection, his language doesn’t become more knowable. For even when a few moments are spent in conversation with the designer backstage, the real takeaway is that this is a language of feeling. And Yamamoto is feeling tired. It’s not the first time he has expressed as much. It’s concerning on an empathetic level, and yet there was nothing about today’s show that betrayed exhaustion and no portion that could be deemed monotonous. Looks were layered with highly considered indifference and were imbued with certain dissident details. Officer coats with atypically imperfect embellishments, unmatched patterns unevenly patchworked, sprays of assorted chains fulfilling no function, and too many berets to ignore all kept the eye in a satisfied state of stimulation. Inexplicable swaths of printed silk floating alongside a few silhouettes were demonstrably soothing. Certainly a coat adorned withNaughty Yohjiin dimensional lettering does not give the impression of a designer pulling back.If anything, his idea to develop these figures as “Partisans” sends the message that he remains a true nonconformist. “I used to explain my spirit as anti-trend, anti-fashion. I kept saying I’m an outsider. Now the vocabulary is not enough. And I’m angry about what’s going on in fashion, so I have become partisan.” It’s a word that people today assume is political. “Or dangerous,” Yamamoto offered.Given, however, that his language has never been aggressive, the biggest threat he poses might simply be that he reaches new relevance over and over again without any propping up from the industry’s behemoths. The designer is now 76; just imagine every designer today under 40 suddenly deciding to operate in a similar manner. Whether dressed in veritably humble togs or a high-end fraying sweater that gives the verisimilitude of humbleness, a partisan remains engaged.
But does Yamamoto still want to be doing this? “I’m putting the same question to myself every day,” he revealed, adding that the answer eludes him. “No answer is terrible.” Or the saving grace for all those who hope he continues designing—and sharing his language with us—for as long as possible.
16 January 2020
In the usual post-show huddle around Yohji Yamamoto, one journalist suggested that the designer seemed particularly poetic this go-round, to which he instantly replied, “Poetic? I was born to be poetic!”It’s a description that gets tossed around a little too liberally in the context of clothes; yet Yamamoto has spent nearly 40 years constructing and deconstructing with nuanced intensity and beautiful abstraction. True, there were oversize chapeaux reminiscent of museum portraits; wire hemlines on dresses and skirts that curled around as though suspended mid-gust; looks that appeared eccentrically stitched together from old slips and bedsheets; and patterns of cut-outs that deserved to be psychoanalyzed. But to the extent that the feisty septuagenarian usually indulges his dark Baudelairian tendencies, the sum of these impressively executed parts actually felt less profoundly melancholic, more palpably enchanting.This came through in the seductive bias cut and drape of certain otherwise minimalist dresses, and the maximalist monochromatic embroideries that turned the final looks into couture-like creations. And Yamamoto’s creative impulses were in full effect; see the two tangled-volume looks whereby the models’ bodies were engulfed in a riot of rainbow doodles, or else the gorgeous game of geometry he played against the skin so that loosely strung shapes created Cubist breaks within his typical black tailoring (note also the foamy blocks protruding from shoulders). For all the experiments in artful exposure these past few weeks, this grouping of coats and dresses would make a fantastic statement for any art fair–related event. Hats with brims that zipped away or were shaped like single-size umbrellas and sneakers with staggered striped soles transferred these Surrealist whims to more accessible accessories.Of course, the oft-repeated irony with Yamamoto is his expression through clothes cannot be adequately expressed with words. But those who have attended show after show regardless of his perceived relevance—and let’s just say he’s been attracting an increasingly cachet crowd once again (as he should)—can attest that he still finds new and inspiring ways to speak his idiosyncratic language. In his memoir,My Dear Bomb, he noted that people have an inherent desire to be understood. Cue the final question of the night: Does this apply to him, too? “Being misunderstood is good,” Yamamoto answered, coyly. “Misunderstanding is understanding.”
27 September 2019
Photos of a Yohji Yamamoto lineup never capture the degree of details—printed words, artistic embellishment—that you will discover on the clothes up close. Only when poking around backstage after today’s show did the text “I hold you, you hold me” reveal itself on a loosely fitting shirt. The designer, too, usually doles out his thoughts judiciously, as though being forced to explain himself not only demystifies the process but goes against the interpretative aspect of what he creates.Today, he reiterated his fear of an impending climate crisis, as well as his view that gender distinctions in menswear and womenswear have all but evaporated. These talking points manifested as ultra-relaxed ensembles, some bearing near-nonexistent landscapes. Masculine workwear jackets superimposed on suiting were interspersed with more ambiguous silhouettes, namely a dashing duo of full-length windbreakers in deep blue and yellow, worn like dresses. One of the two shirts styled overtop was marked up with the wordsmother f. . . well, you get the idea.Compared with the humble raw cotton and signature black gabardine, a black velvet grouping introduced a certain grandeur—especially those pieces covered in pseudo-historical heraldic emblems. Yamamoto said he experimented with these purely because he wanted to—an aesthetic indulgence, essentially. In that vein, some pieces could have been spared the myriad zippered vents and excess bands. If nothing more, they were a reminder that he is not a minimalist.Yamamoto’s approach seemed less conceptual this season, and his commentary was correspondingly direct. “The earth is going to be crazy, really crazy,” he said. “I’m afraid the earth is going to die.” Did he think he would see this in his lifetime? “No, maybe our children and grandchildren.” And yet this wasn’t necessarily an exercise in fatalism. The pair of hands on the side of a garment—were they signaling some sort of diplomatic handshake or a more affectionate clasp? “Both,” he replied.
20 June 2019
Let’s begin at the end of this most alluring Yohji Yamamoto collection, as the five women who appeared together veiled in black made for the show’s most curious and/or provocative statement. But if anyone’s mind went straight to the political—especially given this week’s scandal in France, when a sporting goods chain began offering a running hijab—the designer’s reference point was actually historical. Specifically, as a little Googling confirmed, women known astampada limeñafrom 17th-century Spain who shrouded all but their left eye in black to entice men. Sure enough, one of these present-day runway coquettes pulled back her sheath, revealing it to be a skirt layer of a frontier-style dress.For a designer who is constantly exploring seduction—though rarely in ways most of us recognize—this was a fitting finale to yet another permutation from Yamamoto’s darkly poetic playbook. It reinforced just how easily the layers of fabric within so many of his looks can be shifted around, repositioned, and adapted at will.This was a lineup defined largely by its vertical thrust, from the beautiful column-like fluted pleating extending down coats to the long, slim sleeves and stand-alone upward collars. There was tufting and tacking, wrapping and tearing, draping and cape-ing—most of it controlled enough to wear. In some instances, there was colorful hand-painting—including Fauvist-style shapes across a ballooning back—that initially suggested a less somber outing than previous seasons.Yet amid the sculpted fabric hands that sprung from a few different looks, there was an unambiguous sign that Yamamoto’s roguish side has not gone soft: one was giving the middle finger, front and center. For while Yamamoto has stayed true to himself, resisting the tidal forces of fashion, he’s now 75 and confronting the inevitability that he will not be designing forever. “I feel so lonely and struggling in Paris mode,” he said, using the French word for fashion. “I’m losing so many competitors.” He was, of course, referring to fellow masters (and friends) Azzedine Alaïa and Karl Lagerfeld. Which is why, rather than an expression of mourning, he wants to reassure us that this collection signaled a renewed spirit, an f-you to endings: “I was enjoying; I became like a young girl, and making clothing was deep fun—not like some great master of fashion.”
1 March 2019
Artist, poet, singer, jilted lover—depending on the collection, Yohji Yamamoto will portray himself in any number of personal guises through the progression of runway looks. The ornamental military grouping that made up the latter part of his Fall show would suggest he had imagined himself on an imaginary battlefield. “Fashion designers are always inspired by army clothing; we study it a lot,” he explained backstage. “This time, I wanted to show the highest class of soldier.” So in lieu of his usual deconstructed wizardry, he outfitted them in proper jackets and combat boots—except that the footwear was dipped in gold and the matching buttons were applied overzealously or off-kilter. Up close, these buttons boasted predatory animals (scorpions, lions, eagles), skulls, and . . . the profile of Yamamoto smoking. Proof, should it be needed, that he was not making a political statement.If anything, and partly because of the music, there was something hopeful to the clothes, which he confirmed. “The world seems hopeless, so I wanted to send a message,” he said. Overall, looks seemed less palpably melancholic, with less emphasis on his signature draping with all its complicated, indecipherable overtones. Instead, a front jacket corner would appear buttoned to the back as a volume trick, or a hem would be misaligned but within reason. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine guys who dress to express in one of the velvet jackets or coats covered in drawings of animal faces or women’s silhouettes (maybe less so the ankle-length velvet skirt). The cords bundled into bows like duffle coat closures, and the wispy silken threads that floated from garments felt like poetic gestures, only softer instead of somber. Yamamoto, bless him, offered a more playful explanation: “I forgot to cut.”
17 January 2019
Tonight’s Yohji Yamamoto show was staged as a dark space surrounded by scaffolding within the vast upper gallery of the Grand Palais. You could read this as symbolizing the construction (or just as often, deconstruction) that defines the Japanese master’s work. But the most telling clue to any overarching message was the music, recorded by Yamamoto and a female collaborator, which demarcated three distinct themes. What did they represent? “Anti-racism, anti-crazy global warming, anti-genderless fashion,” he replied backstage, noticeably impassioned.Over the decades, Yamamoto has remained relevant precisely because there are so many unknowable aspects to his work, and people respect him immensely without overthinking why or how a collection materializes. Recent seasons have yielded themes that fluctuate between cheeky and profound, as though he is working through how to express himself in his advancing years. When he further explained this contemplative, sensual, poetically punk lineup as “a return to the right way for men and women [to dress],” it almost felt like too much backstory.But then Yamamoto voiced the intention that effectively captured what we saw: “I wanted to prove how women’s outfits [are] beautiful.” Voilà. Ifbeautifulseems like a simplistic notion for Yamamoto (one thinks of Immanuel Kant, who wrote, “The sublimemoves, the beautifulcharms.”), the first grouping of looks exuded relaxed elegance. Unstructured and unencumbered, the dresses, jackets, long coats, sarong skirts, and wrap pants draped close to the body as though reconceiving monastic robes and classical Grecian dress. They were the collection’s strongest statement; each piece should hold up beautifully for years to come.Meanwhile, the zippers and cut-outs that punctuated the second part were provocative; flaps of fabric peeled back coyly and panels of skin appeared at the back and upper thigh. Circa 2018, the assumption is that you have agency over what gets unzipped, however Yamamoto also acknowledged the obvious: “Isn’t it very sexy?”For the third and final act, an all-white ensemble of staggered, deflated volumes gave way to similar looks, now vividly painted as though artworks removed from their frames. Yamamoto’s shows can move at an incremental pace, yet this has nothing to do with the footwear, each style more comfortable than the last: satin boxing boots, Derbys, sandals, and a pair of flip-flops.
The five black models who opened the show reappeared to close it, now dressed in wearably reworked variations of a T-shirt and sarong skirt, their heads wrapped. Perhaps this was Yamamoto’s anti-racism message, without actually stating anything. The show was beautiful, inexplicable, true to form.
28 September 2018
Those who take a superficial view of Yohji Yamamoto’s canon are prone to praising his general aesthetic while dismissing his collections as repetitive and redundant. The opening looks, with their rows of unusable patch pockets, made for a clever and amusing rejoinder, not least because they weren’t repeating any recent design. Yamamoto is a feisty one, and he’s never held back from expressing himself in his clothes, but the latter half of this very satisfying collection made a sharp turn toward titillating. On his characteristically unstructured black robe-coat layers were traditional Japanese depictions of women in various states of pleasure. “A little bit sexy,” he summed up, postshow, describing the style as “modernukiyo-e,” a reference to the most famous genre of Japanese art (not counting anime).It wasn’t so long ago that the designer was championing the trend of genderless fashion, sounding a little like a follower despite spearheading the notion decades earlier. Now his beautiful, silky chemises over sweeping linen pants—pieces that women could easily wear, too—were loaded with erotica and explosive dark flower arrangements interspersed with skulls. But because unclarity is his signature, this lushly heteronormative situation was tough to gauge: women empowered, women objectified, men emasculated, men worshipping women? Yamamoto only went so far as to say, “I wanted to explain that fashion became so boring.” He continued: “Essentially, I feel that ordinary people and fashionable people are all tired of fashion because there’s nothing kind of strong, cute, sexy.” A bit extreme, Yohji-san, but at the same time, agreed.And when Yamomoto harnesses his mojo, he really goes all out; for as much as the collection was sexually charged, it was also velvet collaged, double lapeled, color infused, leather enveloped, and zippered gratuitously. “When you create, you don’t need to be so serious; let’s play with it,” he said. That’s the spirit! On a day marked with old guard and vanguard, Yamamoto’s contribution still very much matters, yet the thought that it might not clearly weighs on him. “Every season is a big pressure, because you have to talk with the time,” he explained. So to anyone who questions his relevance, see the framed declaration repeated across various looks:Yohji so fresh.
21 June 2018
The invitation signaled that this Yohji Yamamoto show would be especially meaningful. Beside a cropped female nude appeared “Hommage” followed by “1. M. Cubisme” and “2. Mon cher Azzedine” (the French spelling was used).The friendship between Yamamoto and Azzedine Alaïa dates back to 1987, and a quick online search yields a photo of them together from 1990—both still in their 40s yet already well established. Whatever ostensible difference in vision, these two fashion legends were and remain overwhelmingly alike: the obsessional rigor of construction, no matter the outcome; the dogmatic devotion to black (in design and in dress); elusiveness to all but their inner circle; a fantastic rejection of trends amid a steady embrace of business; a mischievous twinkle in the eye that anyone who’s had the great privilege to meet them could confirm. Backstage, when Yamamoto mentioned “shock” and “loss” upon learning of Alaïa’s death in November, it was clear that words wouldn’t come anywhere near expressing his feelings with the same sincerity that a collection could.If you weren’t apprised of the homage, you might have noticed recurring ideas such as staggered volumes from twice-layered coats and sculpted kimono sleeves picking up on the link. Most likely, these were Yamamoto’s highly interpretative evocations of Picasso—“Cubism, Surrealism, and abstraction were triple difficulty,” he said. Yet the leather jackets, scalloped-edge boots, and a double-breasted coat that doubled up on buttons were so strongly wearable, it would be an injustice to frame them as “art.”Meanwhile, knit looks encircled with hourglass waist shapers—a cross between an obi belt and a corset—and leather skirt paneling that hugged the hips so that fabric spilled out qualified as the strongest tributes. But even then, the intention felt more about paying respect than meeting halfway. At one point, the lyrics that he sang—Yamamoto continues to compose his own show music—consisted of “I think of you,” “Winter is very cold,” and “Where are you?” Unsurprisingly, the question accompanied a lineup of creations that resist any straightforward explanation.At the risk of sounding insensitive, people might not ordinarily rush to buy clothes that materialized as a means of grieving. But the blackness that could have registered as funereal didn’t; and whether Yamamoto found closure or not, the emotion coaxed out some indisputably beautiful work.
Alaïa’s partner, Christoph von Weyhe, and his studio director, Caroline Fabre Bazin, shared a touching exchange with Yamamoto postshow, the latter visibly moved. Then he offered up, “I had to challenge myself to something that was never done in fashion,” noting that the process of honoring his friend while adhering to his original Picasso plan was terribly exhausting. “When I have too much strong emotion, I can’t work; [the clothes] have to remain in reality.”The reality beyond the clothes, of course, is that designers are not immortal even if designs by the likes of Alaïa and Yamamoto transcend time. To this extent, it is a shame that Yamamoto doesn’t draw quite the PFW audience he deserves. In an age of schizophrenic creative-director turnover, the new notion of a “last collection” is trivial compared to the ultimate last collection from a respected master. “I was thinking,After finishing this show, I will go, pass away,” he said, thankfully with a laugh. Does he continue to feel Alaïa’s presence? Yamamoto didn’t skip a beat: “All the time.”
2 March 2018
Yohji Yamamoto doesn’t mind letting you know the emotional toll of creating clothes. “Sometimes, it can be a bit heavy, a bit hard, a bit sad,” he said following tonight’s show. Sad in what sense? “Lack of talent,” he replied with a laugh. As usual, you wonder to what degree he means this and to whom he is referring—and were you not backstage postshow with people breathing down your neck, you would have pressed on. Then later, the thought occurs: How does someone of Yamamoto’s talent actually measure talent?Being undecipherable is, in fact, among his talents. It takes considerable resolve and strength of character to arrive at designs that defy logic but look commanding. This time, the mood began mellow, with the generous volumes and layers of the opening looks giving way to belted jackets and shirtdresses positioned on the left shoulder only so that they recalled the robes of ordained Buddhist monks. Then came a grouping of extra-long white shirts patched with black pattern pieces, essentially creating a pattern of patterns. This was followed by a series of coats tailored in precisely erratic ways that featured collaged prints, including a young portrait of Yamamoto now crying a single turquoise tear. A representative later confirmed the photo was taken by Kazumi Kurigami, with the adjacent Japanese wording translating as “God help.” A comparatively androgynous message ensued, the result of semi-sheer underpinnings layered with coatdresses. The designer then pivoted dramatically to brilliant red draped tailoring, with faint photo prints giving the impression of a darkroom session disrupted. Finally, accompanied by John Lennon’s “Imagine,” there came a procession of elongated and unstructured black silhouettes delineated by tracks of traditional knot buttons.Why itemize all this? Because even within Yamamoto’s admittedly limited repertoire, he finds infinite ways to wrap, warp, break down, and recombine, never letting on that he worries about running out of ideas or getting too old. Otherwise, how else to explain the sketches of young female backsides, outlined with underpants, on the backsides of various jackets than as a bid at virility (he laughed it off as “a joke”). As for the striking injection of red, Yamamoto confessed, “Sometimes, I feel I am lazy about using color . . . but every effort without black pushes the black more strongly.” You get the sense he will keep pushing himself whichever way he can.
18 January 2018
The invitation for the Yohji Yamamoto show came wrapped around a booklet of sticky notes, as though the designer was encouraging guests to jot down their thoughts. This writer didn’t catch anyone putting the mini notebook to use; but then, only a few of us have a duty to do so. What follows are mine.As with every season, Yamamoto gave his audience much to contemplate—and ultimately, to wear. The first and largest grouping of looks featured ensembles assembled largely through rows of buttons rather than draping. We often take for granted the gray area between a piece of clothing being on or off, open or closed; but Yamamoto’s ideas are never black or white, even if they present exactly that way on the surface. Asked what he wanted to say with the technique, he replied, “Each customer can play with each silhouette; it’s a natural change.” And to illustrate, he asked permission to unbutton my jacket, re-buttoning it irregularly. Note to self: very cool. “See, you have this strange new mood; it’s very easy, but it’s still very serious.”The serious part was telling. For some time, the music that accompanies the collection has been just Yamamoto and his guitar. For this show, he sung most of the words in French. “I wanted to create dark, heavy music, so in this case, English sounded too light,” he explained. Whatever emotion people felt, the clothes were certainly not heavy. Yamamoto relied primarily on cotton—washed toile and poplin—instead of the usual gabardine, and introduced a suite of fine-gauge knits, their sheer effect more sensual than usual. Further on, the complex creations gave way to more reduced, more exposed designs. These were the most beautiful dresses of the lot, yet to Yamamoto, they represented the predicament of the present. “It’s this crazy global warming, you know. But I don’t want girls to show too much of their body, just the back,” he said before revealing that the stickers on their skin were rather racy. One read,Love Yohji Sex.The fact that he noted “people are suffering” without claiming his clothes would solve this felt honest, if nothing more. And there was something about the bustled looks toward the end that suggested he was just as content looking back as forward. Still, the multitude of shoes offered some sort of metaphorical path: wedge sandals, tennis shoes, futuristic sneakers, derbies, desert boots, open-toed oxfords; each shifted the reading of the looks, from feminine to intellectual to survivalist.
They reaffirmed that Yamamoto’s approach befits a wide swath of women—far more than we give him credit for.
29 September 2017
Women’s portraits made such a strong, recurring statement in Yohji Yamamoto’s new men’s collection that he was obviously trying to make a point. “I wanted to say women are terrible, scary,” he declared, right after being introduced to basketball player James Harden. Yamamoto doesn’t say much in these circumstances, and when he does, it’s never clear whether he’s being provocative or sharing an unfiltered glimpse of his soul. A member of his team later relayed that the collection was about Buddhism and reincarnation. But Yamamoto often treats his go-to black gabardine like a seasonal chalkboard, so it’s easy enough to let this latest round of reflective, daring clothing speak for itself.It did, literally, with different manners of writing: as bands like printed tape across shirts and down sloped-shoulder jackets; and as graffiti in burnout velvet. In English and Japanese, they expressed wry conviction (“Too old to die,” “I’m gifted”) and vulnerability (“I don’t just want any soft touch”). “Don’t be body-shoming” (sic) was a personal favorite—one wonders if the team intentionally left this unchanged. The wild scribbling on two linen looks excited the eye: Was it erratic Japanese calligraphy or something more in the tone of Twombly?Regarding how he realizes such seemingly conceptual pieces, Yamamoto articulated himself rationally. “Men need a shirt, jacket, and pants, but there are many things to do. We need to put air between the fabric and the body—how big or how tight, how long or short.” Doesn’t this explain almost everything without killing the mystique? And yet, he offered more, mentioning his fascination with twentysomething guys who borrow clothes from girls, and vice versa—a fascinating observation from someone who pioneered an androgynous approach. That cohort might find themselves laying equal claim to the shroud dresses and robes bearing ghostly self-portraits by the artist Suzume Uchida. Likewise, the opening grouping of leather jackets printed on the back with larger-than-life depictions of actress Eiko Koike (visible on certain T-shirts). Was she scary? To these eyes, more like sentimental, not to mention Instagram-friendly. In the end, decorative deity brooches did directly address a Buddhist aspect, although this was superficial relative to Yamamoto’s take on fashion today: “New winds are blowing.”
22 June 2017
WheneverYohji Yamamoto’s shows are accompanied by a guitar playing aimless melodies—a little country, a little blues—you can be sure that’s the designer himself. This time, he added simple, sincere lyrics along the lines of, “I like your cheeks; I like the way you smile; I like your voice; I like the way you smile.” Note no mention of clothes, as Yamamoto evidently knows better than to confuse heart and soul with an asymmetric black shirtdress. But among the reasons why this collection consisted primarily of black garments draped, folded, tucked and twisted with a high degree of idiosyncrasy was because, “I wanted to find new emotions, new silhouettes,” he explained post-show. Regarding the former, do new even emotions even exist? The latter, however, came to life with horizontal book-page pleats, dimensional ruching, and contoured wrapping. And to hear Yamamoto tell it, the two pursuits were inseparable. He used “prohibitive” before switching to “unusual” to describe the techniques. With all that work now behind him, he said, “It was very difficult; but it was big fun.”Such enthusiasm permeated the clothes, albeit in an unreadable way. With Alicia Keys in the audience—apparently, she had been eager to attend—one was inclined to consider which looks she might single out. The zip blouson and tucked skirt could be an obvious option, or else the perfecto-style jacket with a ruffle plastron and carrot pants. Both looks had elements of the familiar compared to others which suggested impulsive swaddled gestures. But a final grouping of unstructured, irregular shirt- and coatdresses re-established Yamamoto as a fine minimalist. And whoever developed the dressy matte black Adidas boots deserves a shout-out for such a sleek upgrade.As for the frequent critique that once you’ve seen a handful of the designer’s all-black looks, you’ve seen them all, that simply is not true—and not just because of the hints of dyed gray and secret language of threads. Paint applied randomly to pleats and leggings cast the pieces with artistic expression, even though Yamamoto qualified that it was principally a reaction to the predictable outcome of prints. “I’m not going to use prints from someone else anymore,” he declared. “I can¹t stop painting.” Nor should he, and that goes for the singing and designing, too.
3 March 2017
The invitation for Yohji Yamamoto’s latest undertaking was an employee timecard in an envelope printed withWorking 24 hours everyday. If it wasn’t clear within the first few looks that the designer was sending out beautifully assembled permutations of working-class uniforms, the laborer message was loud and clear when exclamatory words started appearing across loosely structured jackets.Save the manufacturing workers!andThe times are changing too fastare two examples. Backstage, Yamamoto confirmed in his charismatically cryptic way that all these clues added up to a lineup of guys who “use their own bodies” to get by. “They work, they fight.” More important than who they were, was why Yamamoto had determined to build a collection around them. “I admire those people who work seriously using their own body. We’re now at a time in the world where the most important business is money-makes-money. And I hate it.”Yamamoto’s concerns dovetail intriguingly with his talent as a designer: construction versus deconstruction, making with the body vs. making for it. He could have represented his subjects as downtrodden, resigned to a dead-end future; instead, he outfitted them nobly. Relaxed silk jacquards; neat gray topped with velvet dusters in a palette of Renaissance paintings—all boasting reversible, hand-painted linings; sturdy white lab coats over back jumpsuits; and a neo-bohemiam grouping of layered prints featuring biomorphic camo blobs and skulls that he drew himself. The final model who swaggered down the runway in an exquisitely draped black cape, coveralls, inline skate–inspired boots, and leather work gloves projected more elegance than the most polished businessman. Yamamoto may have made more directional statements in the past, but this was among his most impassioned—and certainly one that was relevant internationally, from Japan to France and the U.S.Yamamoto’s casting continues to set the diversity bar high; the models all seemed stoic, unfazed that their faces were caked with stylized dirt. As for the jacket that readYOU have no marbles!!well, whether this referred to a real accusation lobbed at the designer or something made up was irrelevant. “I’ve still got mine,” he assured.
19 January 2017
An abstracted X-ray image tacked onto torn black paper served as the invitation to this season'sYohji Yamamotoshow. “This invitation is about my feelings,” Yamamoto said after a characteristically contemplative show. “During my time in the fashion business, I’ve felt very alone.” Take a moment to appreciate such candor, whether or not you relate to it. Could the designer have unpacked this collection’s asymmetries, suspended states of undress, forced imperfections, or painted urges, and revealed as much? Likely not. He did, however, provide the surprising inspiration for his black body wrapping, which had the effect of inextricably linking garment to skin. In 1937, Jean Cocteau stagedL’Œdipe Roi(Oedipus Rex) in Paris starring Jean Marais. And it was Coco Chanel who costumed the actor’s body in white bandages, subsequently earning her widespread disapproval.For several seasons, Yamamoto’s work has been met with higher industry praise even though he hasn’t much changed his dark, deconstructive refrain. It’s a perception shift, essentially. People feel he’s relevant again. The two red coats that torqued around the body with awkward elegance reminded everyone, like a flashing train light, that this aesthetic had been his domain long before the phenomenal rise of Vetements. One could speculate that these latest strikingly reconfigured jacket silhouettes, combined with the traces of paint marking their surfaces, were inspired by the designer’s fluctuating moods. They expose a level of vulnerability more common in art. Here’s a thought: In 2018, once this show’s venue, the Bourse de Commerce, has been transformed into an art museum belonging to Francois Pinault’s foundation, those silhouettes would make a fine installation.For now though, the sloped pockets floating randomly atop ivory shirtdresses and the braided cords running down the inside of a jacket presented themselves as unsolvable clues. More readable was the designer’s handwritten signature, which he threaded lengthwise into various looks (he sheepishly conceded that this was “commercial”). As with the other Japanese fashion masters, you find yourself asking of Yamamoto, “Do I want to wear something I cannot explain?” Most of the time, in his case, the answer is yes.
1 October 2016
Parlaying withYohji Yamamotopost-show is one of the great pleasures of the Paris menswear season. Today a reshuffled schedule, a perfect storm of traffic prompted by the UEFA Euro ’16 Football games and a demonstration (ah, the French), plus a serious chunk of distance between this show and the next precluded that possibility. The only compensation was that you could almost hear Yamamoto’s richly rascally, cigarette-raspy tones narrating the like-the-man archetypes who sidled up and down his runway.On strapped sneakers, slippers, or 12-hole Dr. Martens, Yamamoto’s men trod a fine line between heroic and derelict. Their heads, wrists, and ankles were bandaged with different colored dressings. Some had impressive augmented facial hair that seemed to have run as wild as a forgotten garden in midsummer. The silhouettes shifted between soft-shouldered long boxy jackets over wide high pants which sometimes had a half-apron front, and even longer jackets, coats really, over longer trousers changed at the angle. Shirts were long and loose. Pockets appeared in unconventional but still functional positions, rearranged by the suggestion of past violence like the nose of a boxer is altered by its reality. Yamamoto’s illustrations first manifested themselves in the emblem “Yohjis for hire” on the back of a pale loose canvas blazer. The next one, through the soft fold of its silky undulations, seemed to beseech: “Voulez vous coucher avec moi?”These tough guys looking for love—or hawking it—continued to stroll their patch. Yamamoto layered long- and short-sleeved collared shorts over each other, complemented by more bandages. At the end we got a series of long fluid overcoats that looked to be overprinted in the silhouette of YY brushstrokes. The bearded and battered men wore these to the photographers, paused three-quarters of the way backstage, then stopped to shrug off their coats and return to the pit. These were souvenir overcoats. On the inside (now outside) were more YY self portraits. The audience loved it. Were Yamamoto’s archetypes scarred by war or by love? By the end one suspected the latter.
23 June 2016
Arriving at aYohji Yamamotoshow stirs a sense of anticipation not experienced elsewhere. For all the familiar Yamamotifs, an element of the unexpected is inevitable. Post-show, the designer-cum-guru offered one word: “Subtraction.” So what did Yamamoto remove? Perhaps some volume; certainly all color, save for some errant strands of red thread; maybe also any overt stance on gender—particularly since several looks consisted of full-length base layers and a conceptual coat. The first two featured sleeves that appeared spaced from their body. Yamamoto likened the shape of others to a coffin. When asked if the collection read as masculine or feminine, he replied, “I don’t know. I prefer mannish. But if this collection is feminine, that’s all right. I don’t care.”Despite the contained silhouettes and minimalist vibe (once again, Yamamoto recorded his own meandering guitar playing for the score), the clothes were meticulously engineered and artistically rendered. How else to describe the saw-toothed back vent of a coat, the needle-punched leather-wool hybrid pieces and the haphazard strokes and drips of high-gloss paint? Moreover, the blackened lips (byPat McGrath) and hair extensions (by Eugene Souleiman) served as darkly animated enhancements that turned the models into Dali-esque goth girls. Rocks sprouted up from Oxfords. All those sailor collars nodded to Japanese school uniforms.The show closed with coats plastered in random thoughts so that “I will be back soon” and “Stop me before I F—k again,” read as an unintentional riposte to the text sweatshirts that reverberated through the Vetements show one night earlier. Yamamoto remains a man of few words; but the collection added up.
4 March 2016
Corporate Motherfuckersread theYamamoto-Sharpied slogan on the back of a cotton baseball ring-neck shirt. Then,The only woman I know is my mother, andHelp me I’m too hot. What did it all mean? Well, statements two and three were references to the overstuffed silhouettes that inhabited the first, long, section of looks—swathed at the neck by black, padded, blanketlike scarves and outfitted below in long padded fishtail parkas, they were topped with ringer tees and rib-jerseys that were just too tight. Innerwear as outerwear that created fabric muffin tops. WhaFa? “It’s a kind of joke,” said Yamamoto afterward. “The kid shouts, ‘Mother it’s cold! It’s cold!’ So she puts everything on. And at the last moment she puts a T-shirt over it, too.” Perhaps only Yamamoto could dedicate so much to such a quixotic thought.The muffin section was crumbled by two color-tinted Fedora-wearing strutters in padded tank tops. Later, outside Van Noten, one in-a-fluster retail-biz Yamamoto veteran said, “I’ve been going to that show for years and I’ve never seen flesh like that—it was almost shocking.” It receded into bondage-strapped variations of Yamamoto’s exquisitely draped bohemian, before returning to tight-tee land. The soundtrack included dialogue samples fromStand By Me. Explain? “My theme is Stand By Me,” said YY. “Because the world is such a mess. So we Stand By Me. This is the scream of teenagers. I feel like all the world, breaking down.” Which explains statement one. This was an excellent and elusive Yamamoto collection, half-protest, half-inquest.
22 January 2016
To witness aYohji Yamamotocreation make its way down the runway is to wonder whether he arrived at it by accident or by deliberate design. Likewise the show itself, which today took place in the gloriously gilded gallery at City Hall, where the acoustics amplified the silence between what may or may not have been a live music performance. Turns out, Yamamoto supplied the recording, a one-man-jam that consisted of him singing “Come into the shadows.”Backstage, he confirmed that the improvisational styling of the wrapped, knotted, and displaced looks that set the show’s tone was very much on purpose. “Each time you wear, it’s different,” he explained. The clothes were also different in that he wasn’t suffocating the models with an impenetrable concept. Gradually, however, he switched into a higher, historical gear; hoop skirts seemed like they’d survived a tornado, and excess fabric spilled out from the tops of corsets. The denim tubes assembled into a skirt were Yamamoto’s interpretation of an 18th century crinoline that he found in a rare book on European lingerie. Only someone capable of reading Yamamoto’s mind would have connected the dots between these exquisitely tattered looks, the makeshift parasols and the all-terrain Adidas sneaker boots to arrive at his stance on climate change. “Earth is angry, the summer is too hot and the rain becomes a storm. And in hot times, we need underwear in the streets,” he said.Environmental message aside, the cumulative effect was a collection that skewed cool. This, Yamamoto declared, was also intentional: “My brand needs young customers.” At midnight, he will turn 72 years young, which likely explains the invitation boasting a photo of his aging hands. The girl who closed the show wearing a stiffly ruffled, roughed-up dress in fire engine red was equipped with a camera as part of a documentary being made about the designer. Yamamoto bearing all seems unimaginable: he communicates via rogue corset boning, randomly painted pantaloons and shapeless shrouds. But then this moment—a genuine resurgence—won’t last forever.
2 October 2015
Roll over, Tom Ford. And listen, Sam Mendes. Because there's a new name on the table when the deals are next struck to dress cinema's most unreconstructed male fable. "This is the first time I tried a very tight suit on the body," said Yohji Yamamoto after this show. "Very interesting and challenging. Because if you do not do it seriously, it can only look businessman. But these are not businessmen … 007." To underline the point, team Yamamoto played the 1962 James Bond theme as these looks came out—and the editor of an edgy British style mag was actually heard asking, "What's this song again?" (Shows how much they know.)The Fleming flimflam was a diverting aside in the entertaining but attention-demanding narrative of the show. Yellow-and-black stripes on combat-pocketed, mega-drop, uber-crotched shorts—pretty much culottes, really—aligned themselves against those on double-vented jackets underslung by nonfunctional braces. These were indications of the overarching theme of the show. "I was playing with caution stripes," said Yamamoto. "Like the caution signs in Army places. The stripe is always strong because it means 'dangerous.'" Also dangerous were the powerfully paintbrushed prints that appeared before the silk/linen Bond aside. Then back to volume, in slate linen, a rich green suit, and a black suit with reduced caution stripes insinuated narrowly and disjointedly at the seams. "I'm for rent," read the cri de coeur on a few illustrated pieces that followed a cameo of crumple. So when he sees a caution line, is Yamamoto moved to cross it regardless—or to turn cautiously back? "I do both," said Yamamoto. Yes he does.
25 June 2015
For all the parlance of garments being well constructed or deconstructed, you rarely hear them described as "under construction." But if anyone can transpose the tenuous beauty of unfinished buildings into clothes, Yohji Yamamoto seems the likely choice. The designer was uncharacteristically talkative today as he explained the reasoning behind this at times highly conceptual show. He mentioned wanting to create a collection for "real girls today," which, antithetically, meant thinking back centuries to ancient Greece and the idea that a draped piece of fabric could be simultaneously complete and incomplete. Then he set out to render the kimono less perfect, softening its rigidity while guarding the overall shape and elegant sleeves.But Yamamoto also took a literal approach to his starting point with dresses propped over articulated frames, stretched like multi-planed canvases, and sagging like collapsed tents. The widest and weirdest of all resembled a liquid silver bedsheet, printed with a few giant green apples bearing visible bite marks. Let's just resist the temptation to apply feminist or biblical theory. In any case, each successive robe took this lineup further away from last season's overt sexiness, although Yamamoto insisted the collections represent two facets of the same girl.Still images don't communicate the performance inherent to this collection, to say nothing of the piano score, dosed out in minimalist intervals. "I didn't want emotional music," said Yamamoto, "because the clothing itself is very emotional." And he was right, although it's difficult to pinpoint which emotion and at what moments it penetrated most. The brief infusion of color—a quartet of robes in violet, emerald, blue, and brick—was particularly striking, for no other reason than its randomness. Yamamoto may have said this collection was "under construction," but for Fall he built something very solid.
6 March 2015
Blotched by livid bruising and welted by clumsily stitched scars, Yohji Yamamoto's models seemed to have just walked shakily away from a vicious punch-up. This imprint of violence transmitted via makeup is something Yamamoto has played with before, for Spring 2013. It suited these clothes down to the ground, from ripped shoulder to twisted boot. This was a master class in sartorial butchery. Jackets and pants rippled with extraneous layers and shivered with hems wrought asunder. Some appeared to have been gleefully filleted then rebuilt, mad professor style, with the leftovers from previous victims. All this slicing and splicing exploded against the eye, but once you became desensitized to that violence, a harmony presented itself. When not black, the colors of those apparently dissected jackets were a complementary chorus of blues, greens, and mushrooms. Identical twins wore inversely colored—but not identically so—double-layered outfits. Like their wearers, these clothes bore their scars proudly and well. Nothing here was a radical departure for Yamamoto, but then surely staying precisely where he is is radical enough. Menswear teems with designers who toy again and again with the old standards. Someone who rips them up instead of ripping them off—and so beautifully, too—is to be cherished.
22 January 2015
Sex appeal is among the strongest ways to assert relevance. Yohji Yamamoto, as it happens, had never given much deliberate thought to sexiness, but that changed, he said backstage, with this collection. To wit, Anna Dello Russo and Carine Roitfeld praised the designer following the show. Their respect for him aside, neither woman generally makes an obvious match for the esoteric strangeness of Yamamoto's clothes. Tonight, however, it was easy to see how they might soon be revealing a pane of skin in one of the loosely secured dresses, or a swath of leg in an off-kilter blazer and gold Lurex brief.Still, when Yohji does undressed, there remains an element of the unhinged: Jackets appeared to be peeled open in arbitrary places, with forearms granted more coverage than upper backs. With some laced-up silk sheaths, it was as if the girls got into them wrong, only to determine they looked right. Webby knits and lace, all produced in Japan, often seemed so temporarily tacked or strung in place that modesty was hanging in the balance. Perhaps that's why some looks came accessorized with fabric-covered helmets: Don't worry about protecting the body, as long as you protect the mind.Yohji seemed sensitive to the fact that his man-repelling clothes were ruining his mojo. "Simply, I wanted to break this taboo from a long time ago," he said. But if sex sells, beauty endures. Hence the wedding dress, the only showpiece that required boning and involved fresh dahlias and orchids. "This time I wanted to play with flower gardens, because sexuality and flowers' beauty for me are the same," said Yamamoto. "Flowers are not always beautiful; women are not always beautiful. It depends on the conditions." Certainly, with a portentous tango on loop and louche gold leather coats falling off shoulders, those conditions invited parallels to the Newton-esque dominatrix or Brassaï's demimonde—minus one major difference: Yohji's fetish is flat soles, whether nondescript black derbies or red boxing boots. Which is to say, his sexiness is not restrictive. He made one other remark, and then left the rest unsaid: "Showing the body is very delicate. When you show it too much, it becomes nothing."
26 September 2014
Just as the Yohji Yamamoto show seemed nearly over, the designer sent out a final grouping of looks that, in his typical jokester fashion, are impossible to appreciate from these runway photos. Tacked to the rear of a toile suit jacket was a photo print of a cat accompanied by the wordPerdu("lost" in French). Next, another lost cat, this time with the notice in English. Then came a lost dog. Finally, there was a model wearing a sign advertising a lost Yohji. This nonconformist self-awareness—whether in jest or in truth—is among the reasons why Yamamoto cannot be written off for as long as he continues to design. Comparatively, this collection happened to offer a wider range of retail-friendly, relevant pieces than previous seasons. Backstage, the designer explained his desire to depict a hodgepodge of personal styles: casual, formal, avant-garde, and elegant. It was tempting to slap clearer names on these guys—artist, outlaw, hobo—in large part because Yamamoto couldn't resist the transformation of his models into oddball dramatis personae. They wore head scarves or double hats and buttoned their jackets in unusual ways. Thanks to strap systems like backpacks, they let jackets hang from their bodies as if this were normal. Their clothing was often covered in random script, from a "Lost Angeles" headband to pants with "Made in Japan" stamped in silver or "No. 1" printed down one leg.But despite all the quirks, Yamamoto can still turn out interesting clothes—pajama jacquards covered in a faded motif of old, stained-glass rosettes; faux bleach splotches stitched onto suiting; jailhouse-striped pants that appeared counterintuitively gentlemanly. The denim grouping was most interesting of all. He said he was tired of seeing jeans that looked "out of fashion." His solution: trompe l'oeil holes, roomy gaucho pants, and a dramatic denim cape. As for the unappetizing trail of bilious paint, freshly poured onto the runway (which subsequently turned the models' soles yellow), Yamamoto confirmed the worst by feigning a retching gesture. Not many designers would go that extra step to art direct their runway with bathroom humor. Maybe the vomit stood for something cathartic—although Yamamoto stopped short of saying he found himself in this collection. He can be described in many ways, but never, ever as trite.
25 June 2014
Backstage after the Yohji Yamamoto show, one stood a better chance of gleaning clues about the duvet dresses and knotted-sheet skirts from makeup maven Pat McGrath than from the designer himself; his explanations can be Yoda-level at best. McGrath said she worked with the idea of "powerful dolls," which Yamamoto soon confirmed as part of a fairy tale he constructed—and then extended well past its visual limit. The designer never quite got around to describing how he achieved such impressive volume other than to confirm that volume was his focus. One would hazard a guess that the pieces were densely padded like pillows rather than structurally supported with crinolines.But what began as an intriguing notion of gothic cocooning (inviting an inevitable comparison to last season's Comme des Garçons collection) quickly turned fantastically trippy as Yamamoto applied the same hand-painted graffiti-tattoo designs from his menswear to his women's silhouettes. Following a brief knitwear entr'acte, including shoulder detailing that vaguely mimicked samurai armor, he presented a few arbitrary tailored looks and then returned to his haphazard mix of ample shapes. The elephantine printed silk snow pants and the paddle mitts were particularly unwieldy (forget about holding a smartphone). The show culminated in a white leather cloak depicting doughnut-eating, dagger-wielding ogres and two other coats bearing outer-space and occult iconography. None of these subject matters would qualify as happily ever after by any definition. But here's a thought: Maybe this entire exercise was a reaction against the phenomenal ubiquity of the ultra-thin, monochromatic down jacket. Maybe the weirdness and wideness of Yamamoto's collection was his way of rewriting the rules of warmth.
27 February 2014
There was only one question to ask Yohji Yamamoto after his show: How do you explain such a multitude and mishmash of prints? "People kept telling me I do too much black," said the designer, characteristically minimalist in his response. It was the most maximalist collection Yamamoto has shown in some time, but it was not the layering that shocked; all those pant cuffs under pant cuffs, collars over collars, and zippered slashes are Yohji 101.This time, those zippers were aided by coffin-shaped pulls. If you tried to process Yamamoto's elongated three-button blazers and cropped pants, you'd wind up quickly diverted by skulls, serpents, and blood-red camouflage. Indeed, the collision of wild dandy florals, tamer sketched patterns, and psychedelic illustrations that bordered on occult will prove divisive depending on whether you more closely identify with a Korean pop star (G-Dragon was sitting front-row) or an editor who remembers back when Yamamoto's ample shapes were radical enough. All those ropes looked uncomfortably akin to nooses.But there is something especially equalizing—arguably even self-actualizing—about the way Yamamoto, now a septuagenarian, continues to clothe grizzled models (this time boasting blue streaks) in looks as eccentric as those worn by his rosy-cheeked babes. Yamamoto's face appeared half-decaying on the back of a leather jacket—a selfie of sorts. In a way, it made the collection seem like an elaborate vanitas in which the wealth of symbols overcompensated for the designer's recent spell of restraint (hey, it's all relative). Hence the follow-up question: Mr. Yamamoto, you yourself wear so much black. Will we see you in these prints? "You will," he replied. "Promise."
15 January 2014
After his tour de force collection of last season, it appears that Yohji Yamamoto is now gleefully back with a vengeance. If that last show was something of a "greatest hits" with the freshest of spins, this season is a varied selection of hits to come. The new spirit that is possessing Yamamoto is timely. If there are two designers whose oeuvres are being looked at by many others this season, it is Yohji Yamamoto's and Issey Miyake's. And now Yamamoto is showing them how it is done in the present.The mood was rebellious once more. A recurring theme seems to be emerging in Paris this season, with designers going against the grain and challenging preconceived notions of themselves, particularly by flirting with a sense of "bad taste." Yamamoto was no different. His silhouettes might have started with a delicate study of the shoulder in his beloved black—here the structure was softened, with tailored jacket sleeves barely held by bows, chains, threads, and cord—but all of a sudden, there was a full-frontal assault of flouro. Yes, flouro: a complete look of layered pink, yellow, red, and orange with turquoise and red boots to match.In the eighties, Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons were seen as the cool, black antidote to the decade's Day-Glo nonsense, and here the designer is embracing it wholeheartedly and happily in great swaths of this collection. As Yamamoto's PR pointed out, somewhat aghast, the inspiration of Harajuku girls was also involved in parts. That's something this designer would never normally look at. "This collection's private title is Meaningless Excitement," said Yamamoto after his show, laughing mischievously.And perhaps Mischievous Excitement might be a more public title for this collection, because Yamamoto transformed the trendy and transitory into something a bit more substantial: In its fresh use of flouro; in those casually abstracted layered looks; the architectural slatted structures; the digitized camo prints on chiffon tailoring; the terrific, perverse knitwear; the bell-meets-kimono-sleeve shirtdresses—there is, in short, much to choose from. The collection came to an end with lights flicked off, one by one, and the focus on a gang of girls in white shirts and black skirts, worn with the rough-and-tumble attitude of the British comprehensive school uniform. The separated sleeves were back from the beginning, this time without their jackets.
In anyone else's hands, all of this might have looked tricky; in Yamamoto's, it just felt so fresh and easy.When asked after his show whether he was in a rebellious mood, Yamamoto replied, "Yes, I am. And I hate doing something that I refer to in fashion as déjà vu. For this collection I made so many trials of cutting, playing on the shoulder, the strips, the fresh neon color…so many trials. And it was something I needed to do!" When it was pointed out that not many designers could get away with presenting so many varied things with such skill in a collection, Yamamoto responded, in a theatrical stage whisper, "That's because I'm genius!" He was joking, of course, but the thing is, he kind of is just that.
26 September 2013
Asked why he opted for such a layered look this season, Yohji Yamamoto replied that he is fascinated with nomads—how they will often wear all the clothing they own and, without intent, manage to make some kind of statement on style.The designer's idealized nomads wore their clothes baggy; both pants and jackets appeared doubled up, with lower layers hanging down in a way we have seen from him in the past. This time, however, the tailoring ended up a tad limp. The layers worked better when sliced with longitudinal venting down legs and arms, affording generous flow. And when the smocks and shorts were as spare as the electric guitar soundtrack, things felt more on point.Accenting all the black and slate gray were sunset hues of gradient yellow, purple, and blue, suggesting the passage of time (indeed, one shirt was marked like a clock face). This might also explain the whitened braids and foreheads; it was an illumination effect. Or else maybe it represented another layer—this time, of dust.But then what to think of the high-sheen fabrics meant to look rain slickened and the ominous umbrellas capped with scarecrow beaks and claws? Well, when you're a nomad, you're more exposed to the elements. If Yamamoto had a dark cloud over his head this season, it will surely pass.
26 June 2013
The unprepossessing bunker that is the show venue at Bercy was the site of the Yohji Yamamoto runway presentation this evening. Yet this back-to-basics place, with its simple lines of wooden chairs arranged in a square, turned out to be the launch pad for a fashion show that was really something special. Yamamoto honed in on what it really means to produce fashion today, away from pyrotechnics and with a focus on the real spectacle of exceptional clothes.The spirit of rebellion and doing-what-the-hell-I-want that seems to be possessing Alber Elbaz at the moment also seems to be grabbing Yohji Yamamoto. There were so many foundations for so many collections in this show that it was quite bewildering. In lesser hands, this might have appeared like somebody who did not know what the hell they were doing, with few hits and a lot of misses. In Yamamoto's case the exact opposite was true: it appeared he knew exactly, precisely what he was doing. This collection was a bravura display from somebody who has and has had so many ideas that he is one of the definitive figures in shaping the way contemporary fashion is perceived. Sometimes it is easy to forget that with Yamamoto; he's like a favorite song you don't play for a long time and then hear again, thinking "How good is that?" In turn, this collection was like a Yohji compilation album: reworked, remastered, lost tracks, new material, the lot.The beginning might have had a debt to the eighties Yohji, in its stripped-down black looks that were actually far from simple—complex, technical cutting prevailed in this workwear-inflected section, as it did throughout. But this moved on quickly to double-breasted tailoring with kimono sleeves, then to mathematically precise origami square-pleated looks, then frayed picture hats and tailcoats paired with cream trousers that brought to mind the crispness of cricket whites… the descriptions of cutting, pleating, tailoring, draping, knitting, and the multiplicity of silhouettes could continue. There was also a shock of various colors between the beloved blacks. But the point of these clothes is that they have to be seen and experienced: Consuming a catwalk image or reading about them is just not going to cut it.As Yamamoto said backstage after his show: "I am a dressmaker; I am not a fashion designer. From 10 to 15 years ago the fashion market became shit." Yes, that was "shit." He made a point of clarifying that before continuing.
"My role is to get the value of clothing back for everyone: cutting, draping, tailoring. There was no real theme to the collection, I just wanted to make dresses, to tailor and enjoy the value of clothing."
28 February 2013
What a bunch of beardos! That could be one takeaway impression of Yohji Yamamoto's latest collection, which featured models who resembled rogue contestants from the World Beard and Moustache Championships. But once the eye grew accustomed to all the faux facial hair—bleached, fluffed, crimped, coiffed—it could focus on the madcap layering and schizophrenic sobriety.The show got underway to the accompaniment of bagpipes, and the first half dozen looks seemed classic Yohji—jackets that buttoned slightly off center, superfluous pockets or attachments, and cropped, roomy pants. A Scottish message was delivered (with much creative license) by long sweaters over suits, kilts with fun fur inserts, and a single tartan suit in tablecloth red.Often, the models would make contact with one another, for better or worse. There were salutes, shoulder brushes, and even a stink-eye or two. Presumably this was to underscore their eccentricity, but the clothes had enough to say on their own. Apronlike layers that draped low below jackets conveyed bartender braggadocio; animal-print knit robes and sweatpants screamed the language of Stephen Sprouse; and matted faux fur coats suggested pimps with a conscience. Too bad Yamamoto's nifty idea to add a line of buttons up a jacket's double vents was canceled out by the bulky, shaggy shorts that closed the show.Afterward, the designer named August Sander, the revered German photographer from the early twentieth century, as a starting point. Yet if the models channeled Sander's portraits, they were equally absurdist. The collection was unhinged, but satisfyingly bold. When asked whether he felt this collection carried on the spirit of his previous work or represented a departure, Yamamoto answered the latter. How so? His next three—and final—words spoke volumes: "Not so serious."
16 January 2013
According to his interview inWWDtoday, Yohji Yamamoto craves schism. That might explain why his catwalk was crowded with ragtag revolutionaries who looked liked the cast ofLes Mizon a shoestring budget. The resolute drabness of the clothes felt like an up-yours to the 1 percent. So did the overt militarism of the khakis, even though they'll probably sell for a price that only 1 percent of the 1 percent would consider justifiable. (The khaki nod to the Dior Bar jacket might pass muster.)Longtime Yohji signatures such as asymmetry and androgyny were intact, but they were more tattered and worn than usual. The sense of life after wartime was compounded by veiled women in black, like widows. But they were quickly followed by a model in a lurid pink sheer skirt wrapped over bright blue panties, which suggested a different mood. Same with the "jewelry," which looked like either repurposed Christmas decorations or bits of driftwood.In the search for interesting pieces that honored Yohji's design legacy, you might settle on a pair of trousers with a shirred, multi-tied waist, or a white biker jacket with elegant tails, or maybe even the ratted tweeds threaded with Lurex. Otherwise, the burst of Iggy Pop on the soundtrack was a reminder that, just the other day, Yohji's daughter Limi Feu was 'fessing up to her horror that Dad had never heard of the king Stooge. At least he now knows Iggy, so Yohji is catching up in some respects. In others? Not so much.
27 September 2012
"Bruised defiance" would make a nice subtitle for a Yohji Yamamoto autobiography. The designer, so instrumental to the rise of Japanese fashion in the 1980's, has fallen out of the center of fashion's conversation—and into bankruptcy and back—in recent years, but never given up the fight. Bruised defiance was certainly the look he courted tonight, when he sent out models with black eyes and cuts on their faces. On they soldiered, and so does he. But it was hard not to notice that, though the room was full, attendance among American editors was at an all-time low. (Retailers, for the record, were somewhat better represented.) Those absent missed a solid, likable show, the main message of which was volume: billowing, shortened pants, mostly, tied off at the bottom or gathered with elastic, complemented with two-button jackets or long, thin coats. The colors were unusually lovely, too, in combinations like salmon and orange, or salmon and creamy sky blue. Still, it felt like Yohji doing Yohji. A few more surprises might help to lure some of those editors back.
27 June 2012
The set on the runway at Yohji Yamamoto was a rectangle of thin scaffolding. Painted bright red, it suggested something sporty. As the first looks came out, the suggestion took on substance. Draped jersey dresses had a streetwise edge with flat combat boots and dip-dyed punk hair, and looked like the kind of designer riffs on athletic gear that were big in the nineties. The graphic punch of those black and red knits, wrapped a bit helter-skelter about the body, echoed Yamamoto's work at Y-3, a reference you saw last season as well.But really, this show would seem to be about contrasts and halves, covering the body, and uncovering it to reveal…something. One long, cowled sweater had a whipstitched seam all the way up the front like a scar, and then on the turn you saw its cutaway back, with skin and pants unobscured. Elsewhere, models seemed to be instructed to hold on to their clothes, as if one false move would drop them all to the floor. Even the invite came with a curtain of sheer black fabric that had to be pulled back to get at its practical truths.All that coy revealing leads logically to sex, which is rarely traversed territory for Yamamoto. There were corseted satin teddies under great, sturdy felted wool capes, and an exquisite lipstick dress with curved pleats like petals that fell open as the model walked, a bit like, well, you can guess what. The show ended in a strange bit of theater, with a group of skimpy spaghetti-strap frocks trimmed with stripper tassels. The models wearing them halfheartedly shimmied by a pole before taking their walk. The message? Mixed. But perhaps that's just a woman's prerogative.
1 March 2012
After pumping up the volume with enormous, kulatlike shapes last season, Yohji Yamamoto scaled down for Fall. The jackets, shirts, and trousers he showed in his new collection were more traditional than some of his more outré experiments in form. Instead of exploring an extreme, he favored breadth of choice. The show was an homage to the coat. There were manifold versions on display, some quite desirable, from militaristic styles to the history-referencing morning coats Yamamoto has made a signature over the years to others growing shaggy fur at the elbows and hoods. The best in show were tagged with squiggly, sunburst "Y" patches—given the master's seal of approval, as it were. These were the ones that made a fetish of, for lack of a better word, their very coatiness: They had double lapels where one set would do, or extra rows of shiny gold buttons snaking here and there. The variations on the outerwear theme eventually spun it out to its most basic but evolved extreme. The show opened with shawls wound around suits. It closed with arms and the man: a series of wraparound blankets with sleeves.
18 January 2012
After a couple of seasons raging against the machine in angst-y, punk-themed collections, Yohji Yamamoto relocated to a lighter, more romantic point on his spectrum. "He must be in love," remarked one critic, even before the bride and her boyish attendant-slash-groom closed the show with their bit of Chaplin-esque train-carrying theater. The show also opened with a floor-sweeping number: a simple royal blue jersey dress with an incongruous train nearly the length of the runway, worn with an outsize spiraling Mad Hatter's hat. There was clearly some fascination with trailing fabric; a pair of cutaway coats did the same.Elsewhere, Yamamoto's pendulum swung wide. On the one side, there were looks so sporty—with channel drawstrings, zips of yellow stitching, and fab canvas tennis shoes—you might be forgiven for thinking you were seeing a Y-3 collection. The blocky, bright red, raised runway added to the game-day feel. And at the other extreme there was Yamamoto's familiar take on French Revolutionary romance, featuring full skirts in built-up layers with paper-bag pleats, corseted waists, and what looked to be padded busts. There was a time when Yohji took your breath away. That era has faded away. But he still has a pull on his faithful. They loved when the bride appeared; and she was a beauty indeed, shaped in twists and shirrs and layers of white silk and a hat that made it look like Frank Gehry had taken up millinery as a hobby. She too wore sneakers. A runaway bride? Nope, just a runway one.
29 September 2011
Yohji Yamamoto's shows are unparalleled in Paris—if for no other reason than for their echt Yohji-ness. The cavalcade of boys and men (Yamamoto insists, against conventional fashion wisdom, on casting both) floating down the runway in their billowing culottes; long, almost tuniclike white shirts; and patchwork-piece jackets struck a poignant note. His play with large volumes called to mind both traditional ethnic garb and street wear, reminding you how much the expressive bagginess favored by the new generation of street-style blog courters owes to the designer (even if, alas, they don't all know they're quoting him). Seen one after the other after the other, those enormous culottes, often rippled with pleats, and alternated with ultrawide cropped pants, resounded like a sartorial gong. (The music, for what it's worth, was peppy Asian pop.) It didn't sound like much else going on in Paris this week, but it rang in your ears a bit—and Pied Piper-ishly, it seemed to call droves of Yohji faithful to huddle and wait on the tiny street outside.
22 June 2011
Backstage after tonight's show, 68-year-old, soft-voiced Yohji Yamamoto was raising the clarion call to the youth of the world. "I felt, in this moment, we need flower power," he said. "But at the same time, we need young people's anger."Of course, even something like anarchic rebellion has a uniform, and so Yamamoto carried forward his ominous punk sensibility from Spring. But this time around there was a lightness to it, starting with a high, cotton-candy swirl of hair that looked like Marie Antoinette on the Bowery, and also present in fragile, webby knits and photo-printed black mesh with negative images of flowers, cut into gauzy layers. But, speaking of the most famous fashionista of the eighteenth century, the mood was further uplifted by Yamamoto's perennial love of historical fashion. The designer took a romantic turn with hoop skirts, either half-covered or with their cage structure fully revealed, that were sort of twisted and turned up, as if the wind had just caught them. The best was covered with black lace, worn with a kimono-sleeve Victorian velvet jacket.For all its rabble-rousing, grassroots sentiment, this felt like Yamamoto in a more optimistic mood than we've seen in a few seasons. Perhaps he knows something we don't about the future, or maybe he just believes in it.
3 March 2011
Acknowledged master tailor though he is,Yohji Yamamoto's suits don't often hew too closely to the male form. He slimmed down his silhouette a bit for last season's eighteenth-century fantasia, but for Fall, he's back in bigger-is-better mode, opening with soft, slouchy suiting that recalled nothing so much as David Byrne inStop Making Sense. Pants were wide, full, and rolled at the ankle, and jackets big enough that many featured straps or belts, loosely tying them together. It was as if the clothes were hanging on to their wearers for dear life—though Yamamoto being the craftsman he is, you knew that they weren't.They radiated a kind of perverse comfort, those rumpled two- and three-piecers, especially in their sumptuous fabrics. That's a proposition not often heard round these parts: the suit as security blanket. Certainly some of Yamamoto's typically wide-ranging cast included those who looked in need of a little bit of comfort—his elderly gents have a dignity their young counterparts can't match, but a bit of a shopworn sadness about them, too. The designer pulls no punches: A series of very cool sweaters decorated with skeletal bones made for knit memento mori. But if Yohji is clear-eyed about the inevitable, he's also sanguine about life's pleasures. He wrapped several of his men in long velvet robes printed with vintage erotica.
19 January 2011
The final look at Yohji Yamamoto was a black T-shirt printed repeatedly with the phrase "This is me," paired with a skirt that looked like it might have been fashioned from a clear yellow pool raft. The message was somewhat obscure. Was the iconic designer, for whom business has been a tough slog this year, making a joke about keeping his head above water?The show had started off more solemnly, with Yamamoto's signature deconstructed Edwardiana in all black with a hint of ragamuffin. Models had near-Kabuki white faces and matted hair. There was something funereal about their pace in clomping combat boots. When suddenly the music turned to funky guitar, flashes of a psychedelic print appeared in high-top sneakers, leggings, and inside the waistband of a paper-bag pleated skirt. Yamamoto flipped back and forth a few times, alternating "Ave Maria" with "Purple Haze." In one rocker moment, a panel of that eye-popping print extended from a dress and wrapped around the shoulders like a priest's vestment. Another look recalled Madonna, with punky leggings under a shredded skirt with a black bustier and rosary. The religious undertone made sense if you were aware that the designer was paying homage to Jimi Hendrix, a rock god deserving of a temple.Today's outing may not have scaled the heights of sheer beauty and emotional resonance that Yamamoto is capable of reaching, but the designer's defiant individuality is still intact. Perhaps that was what he was getting at with the slogan tee.
30 September 2010
Yohji Yamamoto is fed up with casual. He wants men to dress up, not down. "I think current fashion is too American. It's T-shirts and shorts all the time. I think we need some proper elegance to enhance the atmosphere a bit." With that in mind, the designer sent out a collection of eccentric exaggerations—one might call them arty caricatures—of menswear's gloriously dressy past, specifically the eighteenth century.The result looked like Mozart and his friends on acid. Elongated jackets were given random bits of cross-stitch sampling, and rich English florals, echoing great-great grandma's upholstery, showed up in loose suits. Yamamoto morphed shirts and vests into curvy hourglass tunics in a patchwork of knits and wovens. Midway through the show, the models began to resemble Eustace Tilley,The New Yorker's dandy mascot, in cutaway jackets. Then he switched to more abstract tailoring all in slate blue, lavender, or orange, complete with matching stiff shirts, shoes, and socks.By the end of the show, Yamamoto had come up with pilgrim peaked hats and powdered wigs, asymmetrical collars—one side pointing upward, the other down—and George Washington curly 'dos, one male hairstyle that's not ready for a comeback.
23 June 2010
It wasn't easy drawing people's attention away from their freezing extremities—fleece blankets didn't quite make up for the lack of heat at his venue—but Yohji Yamamoto put on a mostly satisfying show in shades of navy, black, and ivory. Many of the looks were conceptual, to be sure, but wearability wasn't sacrificed on the altar of deconstruction. You didn't have to be a longtime acolyte to be seduced by the strapless dresses that looked like double-breasted coats with everything above the bust sliced off. Coats with asymmetrical pleated hems that sagged in places, as if the seamstress had dropped a few inches of stitches, likewise had a sweet, unintellectualized charm.Bold volumes dominated. A man's shirt was elongated into a dress; the aforementioned pleats were blown up and turned into strapless, floor-scraping numbers; and one ribbed-knit union suit was seriously oversize. The only things that fell flat were the coats with faces stitched in profile. Yamamoto may have been forced to close stores, New York's included, after being rescued from bankruptcy late last year, but it looks like his sense of humor remains intact. His show-closing bride wore black.
4 March 2010
The list of invitees to Yohji Yamamoto's Marais headquarters was much shorter than usual. Is he scaling back? Many would guess yes, judging by the relatively risk-free, commerce-friendly collection he sent out. Safe it may have been, compared with his more typically conceptual fare, but (with a soundtrack that included "Detroit Rock City") it was also remarkably fun and upbeat—and all the more irresistible because those are such unexpected adjectives to be tossing around at a Yohji show.He opened with a fitted black shirt with a popped collar and puffed sleeves worn over a long slim skirt. Karlie Kloss' hair was teased, her long bangs partly obscuring a face painted white, with feathers pasted onto her eyebrows above bright squares of green. (OK, so maybe the hair and makeup weren't quite so tame.) From there, Yamamoto riffed a bit, showing boned single- and double-breasted jackets with (surprise!) miniskirts and long, crisp white shirtdresses unbuttoned over black shorts or skinny pants. There were a few side trips into black leather motorcycle jackets; a couple of black suits dotted with circular cutouts; a group of pieces tattered by lasers; and, finally, an abbreviated rerun of the whole lineup, this time in calico.No highfalutin themes to parse, no tricky constructions. That might disappoint some acolytes, but retailers will be another story entirely.
1 October 2009
How many ways can you reimagine a peacoat? If you're Yohji Yamamoto, the variations are practically infinite. This was another one of the designer's think pieces, and this time he trained his razor-sharp focus on the single item that may be absolutely recession-proof: the winter coat.To start, it was long and black, all straight lines to the ankles, save for a jacket overlay on one side; by the end, it was red, poufed up with great swags of fabric in front; in the middle, it came double-breasted in white felt with a gauzy black trail railing behind. Other ideas he tried out included black coats with seams piped in white, and a few more with clouds of red felt fused to a big shoulder or a poufed sleeve.Of course, it wasn't exclusively about outerwear. A long dress with raw edges made it into the lineup, as did a mannish jumpsuit and a tunic that unzipped at the back to reveal a black heart painted on the model's leg. For the finale, five girls came out together, holding hands, and formed a circle on the center of the runway. They wore five different red coats, each with fuchsia panels inset from collar to hem down the back.As conceptual as the endeavor might have been, this collection was one of Yamamoto's more wearable, full of fabulous options you don't have to be a fashion intellectual to love. More proof that he's got practicality on his mind: a collaboration with Salvatore Ferragamo that produced the show's flat skimmers in red, white, and black.
5 March 2009
A Yohji show these days can stop you in your tracks. Not so much because he shocks you—he's not an out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new kind of guy—but because of his wistful score and the models' stately pace. You could call them old-fashioned, but they encourage the eye to relax, which isn't so easy after 20-something days of nonstop fashion. Those who did settle into the mood were well rewarded by a collection that didn't necessarily break ground, but was lovely in a quiet, almost meditative way.The show was essentially divided into two sections. First came the black suits, some shown with arabesques of white topstitching, all cut with an eye for the graceful asymmetries that Yamamoto is famous for. Jackets with uneven lapels and tails, or misbuttoned to create a ruffle undulation on one side, were worn above narrow pants or long, full skirts. The ivory dresses that came next followed the same principle: They were pieced together from irregularly shaped swatches of white and cream fabrics and fell slightly away from the body. The bride, typically the last look, padded out in a grand picture hat and a big hoop skirt. This time she was followed by four more models, all—like the girls who preceded them—wearing sunglasses, and each in a different variation of a soft navy coat. On a day when the Dow plummeted 777 points, the Zen-chant repetition had a calming effect that even a crowd perpetually chasing the next new thing could appreciate.
28 September 2008
There's been a certain low-key grandeur to Yohji's collections of late, but he really dialed down the volume with this homespun offering. A handful of the models were his own age—handsome old guys, their faces a road map—and when they all took the stage at show's end, it was sort of like an elegiac Clint Eastwood moment. Kinda fab, kinda sad, with clothes to match. Hence, the topstitching that gave some of the pieces such a worn-but-worthy edge, like wrinkles. (The hopsack suit with its red threads suggested that Mama ran out of cotton while she was sewing it at home.)Couple the unprofessionals with the young models—and the defiantly chunky English artist Steve McQueen—and it was obvious that Yohji was making a statement about all shapes and sizes. But he also had another political point to make. "The world is becoming worse and worse," he said backstage. "My message is, let's be happy." It might be that happiness is a moveable feast for him, because it wasn't immediately obvious in the dark fabrics, rough textures, and signature asymmetry. But a series of jackets appliquéd with gestures and phrases that could be interpreted as the analysis of a relationship—"Shall We? " "Don't Do That," "Forget Me Not"—were drolly amusing. And the lace shirts in red and cobalt blue were upliftingly decorative—by Yohji's light, at least.
25 June 2008
Fresh off a partnership with Mikimoto in which he created a line of nontraditional pearl jewelry, Yohji Yamamoto debuted another high-profile collaboration on his Fall runway: leather portfolio bags made in unison with Hermès. The avant-garde Japanese designer betrayed an interest in old-line French luxury-goods houses last year at this time when he did his own tongue-in-cheek riff on the Louis Vuitton logo. But Yamamoto fans shouldn't worry that aligning himself with an established brand like Hermès means he's gone straight. On the contrary: It sparked an interest in manipulating leather (not to mention a horse-print motif) to his own ends, and got him thinking about novel ways to approach some of his best-loved tropes.First up were his familiar hard-soft jackets. The aforementioned leather—most often in black, but also in shades of orange and blue, and always with unfinished raw edges—met tailored wool or draped jersey to create appealing toppers that had a new languidness. These, like the more structured peplum jackets in charcoal gray and colorful tweeds that followed, were paired with the long, full skirts Yamamoto loves. The latter, it must be said, were made even more challenging than usual by the girth-extending extra rolls of fabric at the waistband. Still, the show ended on a high note, with a quintet of models wearing smart, long coats in khaki or navy (some of them tossed over the back and suspended from built-in straps), each girl carrying one of those fab Hermès portfolios.If any more proof was needed that Yamamoto still marches to his own beat, it came over the loudspeakers: The guitarist whose taped recording accompanied the show was none other than the designer himself.
24 February 2008
Cryptic, gnomic, enigmatic—one soon runs out of ways to describe Yohji Yamamoto's backstage statements. This time around, he said, "I thought menswear was becoming a little bit feminine; I wanted to make it masculine again." Straightforward enough, except that he spoke by way of denying any military subtext in a show that played out to a martial drumbeat and included looks that could have graced conflict zones as disparate as Culloden in 1746 (the warrior sweeps of plaid), the Odessa Steps in 1905 (military caps and cadet uniforms), and Córdoba in 1936 (white shirts, berets). Oh, well, perhaps the designer had the jumbo proportions of a gray double-breasted tweed jacket over baggy tweed trousers in mind for his New Man (another hint of Chaplin, especially when the bowler hats showed up).Yohji is a fascinating instance of a designer who has stuck to his guns and watched as the pendulum swung back to his comfort zone. Oversize proportions, asymmetry, random zipping, a relentlessly downbeat palette of black, gray, and navy—yes, all the signatures were present and correct. But they were leavened by a trio of cupro pajama suits, garment-dyed in intense purple, orange, or bright green. The use of plaid, Fall 2008's favorite pattern, was spectacular—it was covert in the folds of a multi-pleated coat, overt as the finale's huge shawl with a kiltlike attachment (or was it a huge kilt with a shawl-like attachment?). Several U.S. retailers were enchanted by the scarf-style swathes attached to one shoulder of a jacket. Round and round they wound. And a group in a lustrous lacquered fabric suggested that a voluptuary's heart might beat in Yohji's bosom after all.
16 January 2008
Once again playing the masculine against the feminine, Yamamoto presented a collection of jumpsuits and hoop skirts. The first look out resembled any number of the all-in-ones that have appeared in droves on other runways—that is, until a closer inspection revealed that the crotch was somewhere around the knees, and the back was spliced and braided to resemble the model's plaited hair. After a number of variations on this theme, a few of which featured lacing at the sides, he offered a counterpoint: a loosely cut jacket with a frogging closure worn over a theatrical, blossoming tiered skirt. It was an apron, really; from the back it looked as if the model were wearing pants.Exploring the show's dichotomy, Yamamoto used basic black cotton, metallic silver leather, and glaring bright (by his standards) floral-and-dragon-print jersey. The repetition was broken by asymmetric and poetic draped dresses, many of them shown with a jacket that was worn casually over just one shoulder, hanging slack at the back. The most intricate of these dresses came with silver chains that descended from the neckline to suspend the gathered hem at mid-thigh. And there were other pieces to admire, like a floor-grazing densely ruffled skirt, or a narrower one with multiple panels of fabric arcing horizontally around the knees. But in the end, this collection was less a trove of new ideas than a Yohji refresher course.
30 September 2007
Without a mastodon to club, storytelling is the oldest way to snare an audience. The story Yohji Yamamoto told this time around provided a vital focus for his design. It helped him quite literally trim away the superfluous volume that has recently been something of a bête noire, and it added a topical poignancy that made the collection the strongest he has shown in years.War is an inescapable fact of contemporary life. Yohji chose to address it with a subtle narrative thread that dealt with a soldier's homecoming, using classic Dylan numbers to soundtrack the journey. The opening passages offered clothes that hinted at aggression: combat pockets and bondage zips on pants, military detailing, a red crisscross motif on shirts that looked like an attenuated cross of St. George. Then came doves printed on jackets and pants. Shades of sky blue suggested optimism and escape. T-shirts bore the messages "Feel Like Being Home" and "I Shall Be Released," and there were pieces that looked slightly stained by age, as though they'd been stored in a trunk for someone who'd been away for a while. Toward the end of the show, Yohji retreated to the voluminous black cupro jackets and trousers that have been his signature for too long—an "evening" group featured a semi-Edwardian cutaway jacket over a waistcoat and white shirt. But otherwise, one of the freshest facets of this collection was a generally leaner cut. "Optimism!" Yohji cried backstage, and who could deny that?
27 June 2007
The first look sent a ripple through the stunned audience. Out came the model in a leather coat and matching rolling suitcase printed and embossed with a double-Y logo that seemed to be poking rather obvious fun at the Louis Vuitton monogram—and taking a swipe at the corporatization of fashion in general. (Whatever Yamamoto's intention, it struck a wrong note.) More logo-leather tail coats followed, along with intarsia sweater dresses and biker vests, all layered over skinny pants and topped off with printed head scarves wrapped, knotted, and braided into the models¿ hair.Next came an interlude of black-and-white polka-dot hoop skirts that at the touch of a switch revolved, the tiers of the most complicated one turning in different directions. Despite the inevitable comparisons that will be made to Hussein Chalayan (who sent out his own motorized showpieces last season), you could feel the audience breathe a sigh of happy relief. This was more familiar territory.After a bride in a camel-on-white version of the logo pattern, Yamamoto returned to his signatures again in the show-closing series of strapless dresses variously tucked, pleated, and gathered, and worn over an array of pants, some cropped below the knee, others zipping narrowly at the models¿ Dr. Martens¿clad feet. The beginning of the show was off—Yamamoto¿s too sublime a talent to indulge in such unsubtle lampooning—but by the finale he was back at his best.
25 February 2007
Yohji Yamamoto straddles worlds as a designer. Never mind Paris–Tokyo, there's the broader issue of the ambiguous, ever-evolving relationship between Japan and the rest of the planet. His latest menswear collection distilled those tensions into a face-off between the dark-toned restraint of his signature tailoring and the carnal release of graphics that drew on the work of classic comic artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Thus, a linen coat with tails flying in Yohji's typically Edwardian silhouette spun to reveal a back panel knitted with a naked Salome figure.The collection was very much about that divergence between the face one shows to the world and the truth behind it. Nothing was quite what it initially presented itself to be. A khaki tail coat devolved into a panel of jacquard knit; trousers and coats were transformed by trompe l'oeil knit extensions. The show as a whole swung through distinctly schizophrenic moods—here a Nehru collar underneath a chic satin-lapelled jacket, there a frock-coat-and-cropped-pant combo in red felted wool. (The latter suggested the Artful Dodger enlisted in Napoleon's army.)It made for an intriguing spectacle. Quite what it had to do with the way modern men want to dress was altogether another matter, though the athletic-striped, knit-cuffed pants in indigo denim offered an infinitely desirable alternative to track pants for the man whose sporting prime is behind him.
25 January 2007
Yohji Yamamoto's abiding interest in men's attire showed no sign of flagging on his spring runway, although the masses of oversized suits have thankfully disappeared. In their place was a focus on transparency. This reintroduced a welcome dose of sensuality to the proceedings, even if it didn't quite make up for a certain overall slackness.Yamamoto started things off with an unreconstructed men's look: tailcoat, full pants in banker's stripes, and a starchy white shirt with a black band around its high collar. From there, he traded in those trousers for long, sheer skirts and that stiff shirt for blouses or diminutive bibs traced with delicate floral embroidery. Along similar masculine-feminine lines, Yamamoto cut a jacket's front panels in flannel and the back in chiffon—that's one way to stay cool in the heat of the summer.Among the show's best pieces were a pair of apron dresses with pleats falling from the bodice, where they twisted to resemble fresh blooms. They served as a reminder of the heights this designer has reached with ruffles. The abbreviated finale, in which he sent out only a half-dozen girls, all in subtle variations of that first men's suit, more than confirmed his rep as a consummate tailor, but those girlish frills made you long for the days when Yamamoto really let rip with his couturemanship.
1 October 2006
"100 percent Yohji," announced one T-shirt early in the show, and there were certainly enough billowing jackets and pants (in navy, natch) to back up that statement. Here, they peaked in what would pass for waders if they weren't in linen. But this time around, there was also a whole lot more, as Yohji artfully paid attention to the physical form underneath his signature volumes. One way that he did this was by threading suspenders through jackets, which created a clever "Y" effect across the back. The same motif re-occurred toward the end of the show in T-shirts that enigmatically declared, "YY he is useless" or "YY he is helpless."Yohji also suggested body contours with tone-on-tone detailing, one of a number of surreally striking effects. One suit arrived in linen so fine it was almost sheer. Another, in olive drab, offered a range of buttoning options down the jacket's side seam, so it could be adjusted to fit. Chain-mail vests were another intriguing addition to the repertoire. They looked bulletproof. Perhaps there was a clue in the soundtrack, where the theme fromThe Godfatherplangently sounded.
4 July 2006
Let other designers do frills. To Yohji Yamamoto, ruffles, ribbons, bows, and the like are all so much frippery. He may have been championed for some of his couture-like evening gowns in the not so distant past—and for good reason—but Yamamoto has had menswear on the brain for the past couple of seasons. Continuing in that vein today, he riffed at length on his signature chic tailoring.If that sounds conservative, there was nothing workaday about these particular suits. The first look, for example, was a blue-and-purple plaid tail coat that came with matching full-leg cuffed pants boasting a paper-bag waist. From there he moved on to black and navy pinstripes, distressed velvets, and a less-successful-than-the-rest tie-dyed wool, cutting it all into oversize—sometimes massively so—two- and three-piece silhouettes. Recognizing that a woman in an unreconstructed man's suit doesn't have the same revolutionary zip it did back in the early seventies, when he got his start, he draped the lot with a dressmaker's hand.Elsewhere, the designer acknowledged the trends of the season, introducing layering, proportion play, a mostly somber palette (save for a perhaps unwise turquoise velvet), and a few standout trenches sure to make his retailers smile. And he did do embellishment, but on his own terms: cinching the back of a jacket with a column of D-rings or fastening a coat with a straightjacket's restraints. There was virtually no eveningwear to speak of, save for a couple of would-be gowns converted into drop-crotch pants by way of industrial zippers beneath the knees. No need to dwell on those, but the last two looks of the show were worthy of closer examination. His preoccupation with men's suiting notwithstanding, Yamamoto sent out a pair of intriguing corsets made from the twenty-first-century equivalent of whaleboning that showcased his first true love: the female form.
25 February 2006
Yohji Yamamoto is a man's man. Not for him the disco fripperies of fashion. Instead, for his latest show, he favored the vocal stylings of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Captain Beefheart, three of music's great croakmeisters. Those crooners can come across as both insufferably lugubrious and bracingly tongue-in-chic, and so it was with these clothes. At first, the relentless navy, the boxy silhouette, and the tricksy lapels (doubled, or detached and hanging down, or buttoned across, or pleated) suggested the Yohji we know all too well. But then his playful side took flight.College-striped wool jackets featured stitched slits back and front, which gaped like wounds. OK, maybe that's not so cheery, but the treble clef embroidered on the back of another jacket was reminiscent of surrealist Man Ray's famous superimposition on a woman's bare back. Jackets draped with medal-like attachments had a toy-soldier charm, matched by a four-star general's insignia writ large as an appliqué.Yohji's latest Adidas collaboration registered in sneakers decorated with artist Taishi Hayashi's colorful interpretations of a tiger, eagle, wolf, and dragon, with tops to match. The decoration extended to an overstitched crimson spiral pattern on a navy coat. The final passage was all about trims, like passementerie on jackets and coats, or the great loops of leather that limned the hem of a huge purple trench and the collar of the shirt beneath. What was the significance of these insectoid protuberances? "Gothic," said Yamamoto cryptically, pointing to a small blue dot woven into the lapel of his jacket. Well, if you say so, Yohji.
26 January 2006
"I wanted to play with the history of fashion," said Yohji Yamamoto backstage after his spring show. "With the history of the earth, from dinosaurs to humans." If anyone's up to the task of condensing all of recorded history into a minutes-long show, it's this uniquely inventive designer.The collection was divided into several different sections marked by interludes of musical extremes, from piano solos to Iggy Pop. But one unifying theme was that nearly all of the looks featured something oversize, exaggerated, or otherwise blown out of proportion. Take, for example, the train of a black coat, complete with jagged, cut-out fabric ridges and a pair of horns, borrowing the identifying markings of a triceratops tail. Whimsical? Yes. A showpiece? Definitely. However, this artful outing wasn't without its wearable pieces.Yamamoto started by tweaking the traditional elements of the tuxedo, enlarging the cuffs and collars, and pairing tails with overalls or jeans. A camouflage material offset more-feminine silhouettes, like a wrap dress with ear-grazing ruffled shoulders and a floor-length bustled skirt. Color came in the way of a royal-blue tailored jacket with blousy pockets of navy velvet and a below-the-knee skirt to match, or a ribbon-tied brown apron worn on one side of the body atop an all-black ensemble, but it didn't stop with the clothes. Hair stylist Eugene Souleiman arranged rectangular swags in shades from platinum to raven along the models' eyebrows.Evening looks were more fantastical. It isn't entirely clear what coiled lengths of rope and industrial tubing have to do with those backstage talking points, but audience members didn't mind. When Lily Cole walked down the aisle in a wedding gown with a ball skirt bustling in every direction, atop a rope ring and a corsage of braided tubes, they responded with a cheer.
1 October 2005
"I love the American old times," said Yohji Yamamoto after his show. "It was a good moment for the American people." That made one momentarily wonder whether there might be a political subtext to Yohji's sepia-toned paean to baseball's bygone days. But what mostly came across was a nostalgic tone so un-ironic, a thank-you to Ken Burns wouldn't have been out of order. In fact, Casey himself would have been perfectly happy to wear these outfits to the bat, though he might have frowned at the proportions. When Yohji hung bloomers off a pair of suspenders, they looked like clown pants.Away from the diamond, the designer continued with his experiments in cutting, this time showing jackets whose seams zipped open to create different configurations, cutaways being the most obvious. But so much was overly familiar about the clothes (the fabrics and the oversized silhouettes being just the start) that one was left musing on where Yohji fits into the contemporary landscape, especially when his inspiration was anything but. "When I touch it, everything becomes modern," he said gnomically. Maybe.
6 July 2005
From the first outfit in this strong collection—a long, lean coat-dress in brilliant fuchsia, fastening to one side with giant chiffon bows in various shades of pink—it was clear that Yohji Yamamoto had a statement to make. Building femininity into his severely chic signature tailoring, he used chiffon and organza to romance the clothes: chiffon for the streamers that laced up the back of one jacket like the fastenings of a corset; organza for the ruffles that buoyed out the peplum of another. Some tailored pieces that seemed to be crafted from light woolens proved, on closer inspection, to have been constructed frommille feuilleslayers of chiffon instead.That shock of color in the beginning soon segued into the funereal black-on-black effects that showcase the operatic impact of Yohji's bold silhouettes, with their elaborate portrait necklines, spaniel's-ear collars, or overscale asymmetric button fastenings. But then the rockabilly soundtrack paused for dramatic effect, and he sent out asymmetric pieces in layered solid-color chiffons that sandwiched an unexpectedly psychedelic swirling Lava lamp print. Eugene Souleiman's elaborate hair constructions somehow melded Teddy boy quiffs with the messy cottage loaf of the put-upon Edwardian cook, as well as offering a clue to the designer's eclectic vision: a biker toughness out ofThe Wild Onemixed with a belle époque softness that owed more to the heroines inDeath in Venice.Evening looks had all the drama of a midcentury René Gruau fashion sketch—and seemed drawn with the same bold sweep of that artist's Japanese ink brush. True to Yohji's theme, sweeping skirts or romantic coat-dresses with billowing 1830's sleeves were ignited with Elvis-in-Vegas embroidery of chandelier crystal drops—and the gleaming metal rivets from a biker's prized leather jacket.
27 February 2005
Yohji Yamamoto went in search of a new proportion for fall, elongating men's clothes to the point where they looked like dresses: a brown knit turtleneck that fell to the knees or a series of skirt aprons. The other theme of the show was a width of smocked fabric wrapped and snapped around the waist like a corset (Yohji claimed that this oddity was derived from an item sported by theyakuza). He also credited "railroad men" as an influence, presumably in reference to the rough-hewn nature of much of the collection. It's doubtful, though, that Woody Guthrie would have recognized many kindred spirits in these clothes.Black continues to dominate the designer's palette, but he also turned out coats and jackets over-printed with blocks of color and a canvas jacket and coat that looked like toiles (except for the cream leather lapel on the coat). There was an unfinished, work-in-progress edge to such items—also evident in a tweed tailcoat with leather inserts in its ripped-open seams—that was perhaps supposed to emphasize the creative process. Unfortunately, whatever romance or sex appeal there might be in such an idea was not apparent on the catwalk. Even model man of the moment Will Chalker, in a pair of black knit long johns, couldn't raise the temperature.
28 January 2005
Watching a Yohji Yamamoto show is something like listening to a lengthy jazz improvisation—by a Japanese musician who's also into Western classics. His spring show was constructed, and deconstructed, around two templates: crisp white cotton shirting, and Grecian pleating inspired by the great Parisian couturier Madame Grès. The opening look established both: a barefoot model in a long cotton shirt-gown decorated with a streak of pleating that fell from a rosette on one breast.It was a meandering journey between that and the impressive, elegantly twisted black silk plissé eveningwear that closed the show. First came some austere zippered knee-length glazed-linen dresses with mesh-and-patent sneakers. Then followed many variations on his familiar black pantsuits, now done with sweeping portrait necklines and asymmetric baggy, drop-crotch trousers. (Admittedly extreme, but a nod nevertheless to trends that have been building in more mainstream collections.)Passages in geranium red and dusty sage came and went as Yamamoto essayed various ideas about tunics and pants—sometimes fused into a single garment and lightened with lace inserts. But just as the tune seemed in danger of losing its audience, he circled back, developing the Madame Grès thought in a spectacular way. Densely packed pleats, sometimes braided, were wrapped and coiled into décolleté bodices, then set free to fan into elegant loops and trails. Filtered through an admiration of fifties' grand couture eveningwear, it was an innovative ending to an extended riff on modern femininity.
3 October 2004
Yohji Yamamoto claimed inspiration from French singer Serge Gainsbourg, "an icon of a good-looking French male," as the designer said after the show. And Gainsbourg's signature mix of formal and casual—pinstripe jacket over evening shirt, worn loose, over cropped denims with huge cuffs—was much in evidence.But another star also made his presence felt. Yamamoto recently designed all the clothes for Elton John's Las Vegas sojourn (on and offstage), and there was an echo of that gig in the shirts with shredded fronts, in the striped robes that would be ideal for backstage relaxing, and in the tracksuit detailing on trousers and tops (Yamamoto has created dozens of tracksuits for the singer). Garment-dyed suits in palest blue, aqua, gray, and beige had the worn, slightly shapeless feel of vintage Yamamoto. Much more striking was a black linen suit topstitched in red, with matching red buttons and buttonholes. It was enough to bring out the inner dandy in any man—let alone in clotheshorses like Serge and Elton.
2 July 2004
The first fall offerings from Yohji Yamamoto were six soft, multicolored, printed tailcoats, laid out on the floor of a freezing school hall. Perhaps the result of a journey to Tibet, Uzbekistan, or somesuch folkloric pilgrimage? "No," he said laconically. ¿I just wanted to prove I can do color.¿ The patterns¿flowery, mini-paisley mixes, ink jet-printed on double-faced flannel¿suggested, he said cheerfully, ¿a cheap hotel.¿Then in filed a Yamamoto army of quiffed rockabillies, picking up the coats and shrugging them over layers of printed tunics and slouchy cuffed trousers in a nice m¿l¿e of dusty blues, violet, ocher, and cinnamon. Having made the color point, Yamamoto reverted to his beloved all-black avant-garde cutting, this season scissored into an Edwardiana-meets-rocker kind of elegance.Variations on high-collared cutaway coats, shown with cropped pants and biker boots, have a lanky swagger. While some are hung with chrome chains and others come with snowflake-knit sleeves, the most sophisticated tailoring is paired with bunchy velvet bows, spilling artfully from the front. Another experiment (a subtle dig at the alarming proliferation of must-have bags, maybe?) places big leather pockets at the front of skewed pea coats, receptacles roomy enough to allow a woman to roam the world hands-free.The best came last: a striking sequence of sweeping greatcoats and capes with layers of collars and oversize brass and chrome buttons. Part military, part highwayman, the variations include a tiny-waisted version, its huge collar trimmed in white sailor braid, and a trench whose detail is picked out in red patent leather. The effect¿gutsy and chic at the same time¿reveals Yamamoto leading fashion¿s forward march once more.
17 January 2004
Once again, Yohji Yamamoto chose to show his Ready-to-Wear line during Couture, a full two months ahead of the usual schedule. This Spring collection, he said, was an exercise in “doing something graphic.” That meant working squares of fabric, linked Paco Rabanne–style with metal rings, into many variations of bodices, which came attached to long, flowing skirts. The surprise was the sense of body that came through—literally. Though he stayed almost entirely with his habitual black, cutting pinafore dresses and overalls suspended from complex straps and ties, the torso beneath was naked, save for body paint, applied in chalky blocks by Shiseido. The focus was mainly on evening, save for a series of arty takes on that most American of classic looks: the white tee and jeans. Skintight gauze T-shirts, again stretched over painted torsos, were paired with baggy, low-hanging, washed-out denims, a cross-bred version of hip-hop pants and Japanese workwear. The one shot of color in the show arrived in the footwear: chunky foam platform flip-flops—some attached to toeless, heel-less neoprene socks—in bright red, leaf green, turquoise, and yellow, that came over as a sporty take on Japanese geta. Naturally, all were emblazoned with three white go-faster stripes, in a nod to the designer’s ongoing collaboration with Adidas.
5 July 2003
Sprinting ahead of the rest of the pack by showing his Fall/Winter 2003 ready-to-wear line during couture, Yohji Yamamoto took a few graphic, classic motifs and skewed them with his vision of what he calls "couture that could be worn on the street." Working mainly around black-and-white houndstooth fabrics, varying from bold checks to finer menswear wools, he used this collection to merge masculine tailoring and feminine shapeliness into layered silhouettes. The result: daywear with a soupçon of the Dior-esque '50s and a dash of punkish detail, cut with Yamamoto's original twists on pattern and structure.Generous checked coats with voluminous sleeves hugged the waist and ended in shaggy fringe. Skirts pleated like kilts came layered over punky leggings in print chiffon and flat, pointed leather boots. Large checked scarves were wound around necklines and trailed off with a certain Parisian dash. Yohji's enduring tastes for Edwardiana and rocker styling showed up too, in sculpted peplum jackets, trenches and black leather motorcycle jackets. But it was the leanest, simplest pieces, like a slightly padded black jacket wound with a matching scarf, that proved his argument for clothes that can walk coolly off the runway and out onto the sidewalk.
18 January 2003
Yohji Yamamoto jumped an audacious three months ahead of schedule to present his spring ready-to-wear collection the day before the Paris couture shows began. He explained the break with tradition by saying he “wanted to show in silence, with less people.” In this case, those people included Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Azzedine Alaïa, Martine Sitbon and the filmmaker Wim Wenders.In the opulent, gilded surroundings of the Paris Opera, Yamamoto unfolded a show that was indeed couture-like—filtered through a modernist sensibility but tinged with a delicate romanticism. He began with royal-blue militaristic jumpsuits topped with army caps, some of which sprouted veils of tulle that referenced the hats of the 1950s. That made way for a parade of tailoring, always in black, which showed the designer’s fascination with discovering new volumes in empire-line jackets and coats with neat raised shoulder lines and portrait necklines. These were brought down to earth with wide pants and pointy, mannish flats.It was Yamamoto’s eveningwear, though, that continued the designer’s career-long East-West dialogue—an obsession with the heritage of couture that dates back to a visit he made to Paris as a hungry student in the 1960s. His little black cocktail dresses, with sheer panels in front or back, flowed on the body with a tantalizing, offhand sexiness. His versions of the grand gown came as bustier dresses, sometimes with a twist in the sculpted bodice, anchored here and there with asymmetrically fastened silver chains or bone necklaces.On the 20th anniversary of his first Paris show, Yamamoto’s collection was both a confirmation of his stature as a grand master of design, and a testament to his restless, nonconformist questioning of the way things have to be done.
6 July 2002
Yohji Yamamoto's riffs on sport-meets-couture-meets-Japanese-asymmetry have lasted a couple of seasons now. But even though other designers have been coming up on the outside with zippy track suits, hoodies and parkas this season, Yohji is still out in front.As is his wont, Yamamoto mixed street sport pieces with military drab, denim, knit, biker leathers and traditional suit and coat fabrics. He started out with trompe l'oeil biker jackets which were fused with skirts to look like coats, then cut up denim to layer over zipped sweats and long, elegant black pleated skirts. Oversized men's suits stumbled on the asexual side, but the designer's 20-year obsession with the formal structures of Western couture put him back on track. He cut tailcoats in khaki and worked graphic leather patches into black jackets and suits. A navy melton peacoat and a long coat cut with three-quarter-length puffed sleeves bordered on modernist Balenciaga.Ultimately, this show was a bit of a marathon complete with some uphill moments. And when Yamamoto reached the finish line via parkas and nylon jackets with wings painted on the back, it wasn't certain whether he was conjuring heavenly seraphims or Hell's Angels. Either way, the audience cheered.
6 March 2002
Yohji Yamamoto's cult status derives from his blending of contemporary Western tailoring with elements of traditional Japanese dress—a combination that was brilliantly explored in his collaboration with Adidas for Fall 2001.For Spring, Yamamoto returned to some of last season's sports-inspired themes. Athletic bodysuits were worn under lightweight wrap skirts held up with thin shoulder straps; cropped, shiny zip-up blousons gave flowing gowns a streetwise appeal. Yamamoto deconstructed masculine suits by hacking off their sleeves and cinching jackets with decorative bands, or removing their back panels and replacing them with long braids of shredded fabric. Less severe were the floral-printed pantaloons, draped dresses and flowing skirts with pockets concealed in the waistband.Yamamoto's partnership with Adidas is proving to be an extremely fruitful one. Sneaker collectors will not want to miss out on the fabulous three-stripe high-tops and scalloped-edge trainers.
5 October 2001
Sporty Yohji?Jamais!Think again—the Japanese master of fluid, dramatic silhouettes and couturelike craftsmanship proved that he can deliver plenty of surprises with a casual, athletic-inspired collection.Naturally, this was no ordinary track-and-field uniform. Baseball-bomber blousons were designed to trap one of the arms of its wearer in its folds. Casual trousers came equipped with a short skirt overlay. A hooded baseball-inspired jacket was shown with a voluminous, ballooned floral-print skirt. And no Yamamoto show would be complete without artful draping: His long, amorphous coats revealed unexpected panels when least expected; asymmetric dresses exposed one arm and covered the other with a generous, flowing sleeve.Yamamoto’s accessories included visor sunglasses and velvety bags that doubled as scarves—but it’s the colorful sneakers with red soles, silver racing stripes and floral designs that will have customers lining up next Fall.
9 March 2001
This season, Yohji Yamamoto turned his attention to suiting and draping—swathing and wrapping the body in his unique, highly evolved manner.br> His masculine take on pinstripes and black suits consisted of strong-shouldered, side-fastening coat jackets with long, asymmetric tails. Trousers were loose and sometimes oversize: There was a huge-waisted pair cinched at the hips, with excess fabric dangling at the side. Fluid black dresses were gathered at the side and featured a train that could be attached to the wrist, the hem draping around the body. Deceptively simple-looking columns had extra panels that could become practical pockets; there was also a sumptuously knit sweater, skirt and tote combo.Experimentation is a given at any Yamamoto show, so it was no surprise when fluid gowns appeared complete with built-in bags. Some were cinched and attached to the back of the dress, while others, strategically placed on the side, became perfect hand warmers. The most dazzling look: a flowing strap dress with a sequined coin purse, complete with hardware clasp, resting at the back—the perfect marriage between function and design.
7 October 2000
Against a hypnotic soundtrack of chants that seemed part Native-American, part Tibetan, Yohji Yamamoto sent out a bravura collection that suggested a luxurious cocooning against an arctic winter.In the poetic Yamamoto tradition, his models looked like the brides of Mongolian or Tartar warriors. The designer's light touch also ensured that the potentially cumbersome volumes—sweeping ankle-length coats with deep-set sleeves, layered over full skirts—were controlled via airy duvet linings and decorative hand-stitched quilting.Yamamoto used fur--real fox and faux wolf—to circle hoods and collars and to bristle from beneath the hems of padded crinoline skirts, as well as for such swaggering accessories as overscaled Cossack hats, loop stoles, gauntlets and muffs. He juxtaposed the magnificence of jacquard fabrics—their patterns suggesting antique paisley shawls—with the savage edge of animal skins, transformed into fitted sheaths. These were deftly seamed to follow the skins' natural ragged edges—a theme brilliantly developed in layered fabric pieces, with the hems cut in ragged imitation of those animal pelts. An Inuit-inspired couple and their enchanting swaddled baby closed the show, suggesting the sensuous pleasures of wrapping up against the cold.
26 February 2000
Deconstructing (and then reconfiguring) traditional clothing and silhouettes has always been an essential component of Yamamoto's work, and this season he addressed the issue head-on. A simple white dress opened his show; a virtually identical one, adorned only by a black ruffle on the front followed it; next, it developed a sleeve and side section. Eventually, of course, the outfit was completed with two sleeves and shoulders, though Yamamoto never quite got around to the back. The effect was stunning, as were the beige full skirts with elaborate pleats and voluminous ruffles, feather umbrellas, trench coats and preciously embroidered tops in the lightest possible shades of orange, purple and green. It takes a master of nuance to pull off such a delicate collection—and Yamamoto did it faultlessly.
2 October 1999
Yohji Yamamotodid two wedding-themed collections in the late nineties, each of them transporting. It’s hard to top a runway-spanning bridal hat that required four attendants, each of them carrying bamboo poles, which he showed for Spring 1998, but he managed it the following year with an enchanting show that had models removing one dress, only to reveal another, and then another. “Behind the wedding dress there must be many stories,” he reasoned. The collection was a career high. Bonus points for the cameo byVogue’sAndré Leon Talley.
1 August 1998
[Editor’s note: This collection was originally presented on March 14, 1998, in Paris at the Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, and the photos have been digitized as part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing efforts to document historical fashion shows.]Yohji Yamamotois a designer who is in the habit of returning to themes rather than abandoning them. From a distance of more than 20 years, we can see that his fall 1998 collection both reprised the cozy, chunky knits he had introduced forfall 1995and introduced the bridal motif he’d double down on forspring 1999.You could say that the fall 1998 lineup was about stretch—or in more contemporary parlance, that the designer was literally flexing. There were a lot of knits, both of the loving-hands-made-at-home variety and jerseys. Yamamoto explored the draping possibilities of the latter, but he also combined jerseys with more static woven materials. Postshow the designer toldThe Daily Telegraphthat his idea was “to experiment with the ‘delayed’ reaction of certain fabrics contesting the movements of the body.”With the exception of the finale look (more on that later), this was a relatively sporty show, even when it came to dressing for evening.Voguephotographed Angela Lindvall leaping through the Irish countryside in a knit ball skirt and ribbed turtleneck from the collection. As theDetroit Free Pressacknowledged at the time, “Yamamoto is trying to nudge fashion in a looser direction.” And perhaps also in a more contemporary one as well: For the most part Yamamoto’s historicisms referenced the 20th century (the cargo-pocket peplums looked like a pre–World War II silhouette) rather than earlier periods.The caged finale gown, with its hyper-exaggerated 19th-century proportions, was the exception—and exceptional in every way. It was even accessorized with Doc Martens, according toJodie Kidd, who wore it. Sally Brampton, reporting on the show forThe Guardianin 1998, recounted that “the bride billowed down the catwalk in a cream skirt so huge that journalists in the front rows had to duck down below the skirt, only to discover a bamboo cage strapped around her waist with canes radiating out from it. Four men held up the vastMy Fair Ladypicture hat that floated like a snowdrift over her.”Aseason later, Yamamoto would deconstruct the wedding dress in a memorable show at the Moulin Rouge (a place, one wit noted, better known for stripteases).
That collection could be construed as a love affair with a dress, or the transformational female fantasies associated with both fashion and marriage, but in 1998 the designer was in a different frame of mind. “He said he was playing up to mass-market conceptions that fashion was ‘extravagant and stupid,’”The Daily Telegraphwrote. “The runway becomes more exaggerated, and that is the entertainment value of it all,” noted Richard Martin, then the curator at the Costume Institute, wheninterviewedlater that year byThe New York Timesabout the broader societal fixation with everything bridal. “If you assume the wedding dress is the symbolic finale, it makes sense that it’s going to be more hyperbolic than ever.” It’s not just sex that sells, after all.
28 December 2022
Editor’s Note: We continue our tradition of expanding the Vogue Runway archive by digitizing collections originally shot on film, focusing on shows from the past that speak to the preoccupations of today. Here, the spring 1997 lineup from Yohji Yamamoto, which examined the history of Western fashion, starting with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. This spring 1997 collection was originally presented in Paris on October 12, 1996.Let’s hope that the discussions about women’s place in fashion aren’t just a trend, but become a priority. “Women Dressing Women” at the Met finally gives female designers their due. So did Yohji Yamamoto’s spring 1997 show. The opening looks clearly referenced Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who designed for women on the move—action figures, if you will. Yamamoto himself got busy deconstructing the classic tweed cardigan suit, showing a version with unfinished hems and pairing it with exaggerated men’s button-downs and shirts with Byronesque frills.Next up was a group of “dandies” dressed in black, after which came hourglass looks that played opaque off against transparent, and still more highly structured pieces. A long, curvy silhouette accessorized with an attenuated parasol recalled a drawing by Mary Cassatt,At the Museum,while a New Look suit and umbrella evoked René Gruau’s drawings for Dior.Bringing things back to the present were a number of ensembles made of a humble and light muslin-like material that functioned like black canvases; after them came kaleidoscopic explosions of color and pattern. Esther de Jong, with bed-tousled hair, walked the runway in a royal blue dress with triangle-shaped cut-outs framed with colorful beadwork executed in India. Dévoré velvets were another soft and colorful addition to the collection, while dramatic, organic silver jewelry gave it some edge.The finale looks were a series of draped dresses and dramatic hats; Carolyn Murphy wore all white, Jodie Kidd inky black, and Kirsty Hume the sunny yellow of a new day. This dress might be read as a manifestation of Yamamoto’s saying: “'With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.”
12 October 1996
Editor’s note: This collection was originally presented on March 16, 1995 in Paris and has been digitized as part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing efforts to document historical fashion shows.The descriptor “business in the front, party in the back” works well to describe some of the most dramatic looks inYohji Yamamoto’s fall 1995 ready-to-wear collection, which combined masculine tailoring with frothy bustles, a reprise of a theme the designer had first explored in 1986. “The focus on the backside is typical for Eastern modes of dressing, which traditionally emphasize a woman’s elegance as ‘seen from the back,’ like in the Japanese ukiyo-eprints,”wrotea Costume Institute curator about a piece from the 1995 show.Throughout his career, Yamamoto has deconstructed historic Western dress, or collaged elements of it, with Japanese dress traditions. And he has a 360° vision: lavishing as much attention to the backs and sides of garments as the front. With soft construction and airy materials like mesh he has been able to achieve what required stiff engineering in the 19th century.Soft to the touch but weighty in their materiality were a group of chunky knitted coats. Web-like deconstructed knits and velvet added to the symphony of textures in a collections with a limited and mostly muted palette. At the time, the clothes were compared to widow’s weeds. Looking at them from a distance of almost 30 years, I read them differently. The combination of his-and-hers reads to me like a nuanced celebration of female power.
30 December 2022