YOHJI YAMAMOTO Y-3 Y's Known for His Philosophical Approach To
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54 THE EYE YOHJI YAMAMOTO Known for his philosophical approach to YOHJI YAMAMOTO design, Yohji Yamamoto is one of fashion’s Y-3 most pioneering and idiosyncratic thinkers, Y’S often fnding lyrical parallels between cloth- ing and the curiosity of the human condition. “Just as man lives and grows old, so too does fabric live and age,” he theorizes in his poetic 2010 autobiography, My Dear Bomb. “When fabric is left to age for a year or two, it natu- rally contracts, and at this point, it reveals its charm,”. Alongside contemporaries including Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Keno Takada, Yamamoto was one of the leading proponents of the avant-garde design wave that emerged from Japan in the 1970s and ’80s. Artfully mixing high concept and traditional crafts- manship, they transformed global fashion with radical new ideas on gender, streetwear and contemporary garment construction. If it’s possible to defne the Yamamoto signature, it is perhaps his uncanny desire to design clothing that feels aged, preworn → and imperfect. “I think perfection is ugly,” Yamamoto says he can’t imagine himself retired. he stated in his 2002 publication Talking to “I also think it’s hard to Myself. “Somewhere in the things humans imagine my brand without make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, me,” he told i-D. “I think Yohji Yamamoto will die distortion.” As such, his unstructured, with Yohji Yamamoto.” “anti-ft” silhouettes with their asymmetric 56 THE EYE 57 FASHION lines, distressed fnishes and raw seams historical design references and a decidedly create a masterful sense of dishevelment. modern elegance. Often turning to ancient Japanese draping His frst show caused outrage in parts of and European tailoring techniques for the fashion world, condemned as “Hiroshima inspiration, Yamamoto also provides an oddly chic” by many in the French press who were familiar touch to his collections. By infusing shocked by his fercely abstract all-black his designs with age and wear, Yamamoto looks. Yet others seemed to instantly recog- attempts to create the security of a favorite old nize something interesting in his work, and as sweater or coat that envelops and guards the he continued to fnd his voice as a designer, he wearer’s body. “I make clothing like armor,” he achieved growing acclaim for using his plat- told Details magazine in 2005. “My clothing form as a way to discuss new cultural shifts. protects you from unwelcome eyes.” Today, Yamamoto’s multiple fashion This singular vision often places lines have a cult-like level of devotion around Yamamoto at odds with current trends. “I the world. Continually challenging notions want to achieve anti-fashion through fashion. of what fashion can be, he has undertaken That’s why I’m always heading in my own unique collaborations with brands such direction, in parallel to fashion,” he explains as Adidas, Hermès and Mikimoto as well in Talking to Myself. Throughout his long as artists, flmmakers and choreographers career he has always opposed trend-led including Heiner Müller, Wim Wenders and design, often decrying the superfciality of fast Pina Bausch.† In recognition of his contribu- fashion and modern digital culture. Instead, tions to culture and fashion, he has received his vision is a more subversive driving force an array of notable awards including France’s that counterbalances the momentum and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres direction of contemporary style. “I hate fash- and the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon ion,” he later reveals. “Or the word fashion, from the government of Japan. which sounds colorful, extravagant, expensive Yamamoto himself is an enigma. Rarely and gorgeous. I never wanted to walk the giving interviews, he appears equal parts main street of fashion. I have been walking the bold iconoclast and introspective, humble sidewalks of fashion from the beginning, so philosopher. In a 2013 conversation with I’m a bit dark.” his friend and collaborator Wim Wenders Yamamoto spent his early life studying for Interview magazine, Yamamoto told law in Tokyo, but soon after graduating and the flmmaker, “I feel like I have become a starting to work in the feld, he realized that he living fossil in the fashion world. I was on had no real interest in pursuing it as a career. a Japanese designers’ pedestal—considered At the time, his mother owned a dressmaking a maestro. My design was getting closer to a business, and it was while working for her couturier’s work, and I felt like I was missing that he learned how to cut and sew from †In 2003, Adidas and something.” He continued, “At a certain point, skilled seamstresses. Quickly discovering a Yamamoto debuted a new I stopped seeing my clothing worn by people sportswear line called talent for design and tailoring, he enrolled on the streets. it seemed like they were Y-3. The “Y” stands for in the prestigious Bunka Fashion College. Yohji Yamamoto, the “3” being treated as museum items.” His work Yamamoto’s frst label was launched in 1972 represents Adidas’ three may examine complex, cerebral ideas but in Tokyo, a ready-to-wear women’s line called signature stripes, and the Yamamoto wants above all for his collections dash signifies the bond Y’s, with a namesake men’s line launching two between the two. The col- to connect with the simple realities of life. To years later. In the early 1980s he moved to laboration pioneered the this point, his autobiography ofers readers a Paris, the city where his young brands would breakdown between sport wry piece of advice: “Rather than prattle on and fashion, well before fourish and develop their signature eclectic the buzzword “athleisure” endlessly about art and concept, one is better mix—androgynous silhouettes informed by was ever uttered. served by living.”* My clothing protects you from unwelcome eyes. 58 THE EYE 59 FASHION → Growing up in poverty with a widowed mother, Yamamoto says he realized that the world was unfair by the age of five..