The worries and wisdom of yohji yamamoto
After his Paris collection at the weekend, we spoke to the master about a career and life lived without regrets, and why his brand will die with him.
You have said that fashion had nothing to do with trends, what do you mean by that?
I never followed the rules of fashion. I always found short cuts, and paths that I created especially for myself. I wanted to oppose the system of trends and propose something new. When everyone says that something is beautiful, I don't like it.
Do you feel like an artist?
I don't know. I've always been very careful with the word "art". What is art? Something that can pierce your heart and change your life? It is a precious word, it is dangerous to use it inappropriately. If fashion was art, it would not be in fashion.
Has fashion never been an art?
No, never. It is always clothes.
Do you think the fashion world has changed a lot since you started?
Yes, fast fashion ruined everything. People waste clothing. They buy and buy, sometimes without even wearing it, and ultimately end up swinging it in the trash. It is pollution. Even some products that are used to make the clothes are toxic. There is already so much unnecessary waste in the world. How many planes are flying in the sky right now? The earth is becoming warmer. She is angry. We should really think about how to better manage our industry. I am not an environmentalist, but for some time I have felt very strongly that the earth is angry. We need everyone to calm down. Do not rush. It's tiring -- those people who always want more. Money is a boring thing, don't you think? Something that is meant to bring comfort is making people uncomfortable.
Are you aware of having influenced a generation of designers?
The new generation does not have time to breathe. They should stop watching their screens. They think about the world through their computers, but they do not know. For me there is no fight. I never found someone at my level. I have no rival. In any case, not yet.
Do you ever plan to stop one day?
I can not imagine myself retired. It must be so boring. I also think it's hard to imagine my brand without me. I think Yohji Yamamoto will die with Yohji Yamamoto.
(Material from https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/the-worries-and-wisdom-of-yohji-yamamoto)
Athleticism is rarely a quality praised, or even acknowledged, in fashion. But it is also one that is hard to dismiss in a designer like Yohji Yamamoto, who once concluded a runway show with a martial-arts demonstration in which he appeared to karate-chop a male model.
Along with Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo, Yamamoto was, of course, at the fore of an influential wave of avant-garde designers who emerged from Japan in the 1970s and early 1980s. Born into wartime Tokyo in 1943, he first studied law, but opted instead to go to work for his mother, a seamstress, and enroll in Bunka Fashion College. It was after a brief sojourn in Paris that he established his first label, Y's, in Tokyo in 1972, debuting his eponymous line back in the French capital nine years later and blowing away the tight dresses and padded shoulders of the sartorial moment with the billows of dark fabric and a brand of intellectual playfulness that instantly earned him a place as one of the most forward-looking, paradigm-breaking, and versatile artists in contemporary fashion. But for a man whose work has consistently been associated with the cutting edges of things, Yamamoto has always remained remarkably trend-phobic, choosing to operate within a framework that has less to do with the whims of seasons and more to do with the development of ideas, as exemplified by his frequently loose, asymmetrical cuts, enveloping drapes, ample uses of black, and recurring flirtations with sexuality and androgyny. In this way—as well as others—Yamamoto has always described his relationship with fashion as one built around a kind of tension that's palpable in his clothes, where freedom (you can dream up whatever you want) and restriction (you are beholden to commerce, rules, reactions, and deadlines) are in a constant tug-of-war.
But back to athleticism: At the end of the 1980s, Yamamoto took up karate, eventually earning his black belt and embarking on a kind of sporting life that would undoubtedly inform another of his endeavors. In 2002, Yamamoto began collaborating with Adidas on Y-3, a line of sneakers, exercise clothes, and other active-minded pieces that applied the high-fashion sharpness of his main line to sportswear. As Yamamoto recalls, the idea for Y-3 first emerged when he requested some sneakers from Adidas for a show, which was intended as a subversive nod to the brand's currency with street kids in Japan, who, at the time, were going through one of their periodic infatuations with triple-striped track suits. The conversation that ensued led to a discussion about Adidas creating some special sneakers for Yamamoto, which led to another discussion about more fashiony nips, tucks, and variations that could be applied to other kinds of athleticwear, and ultimately to the development of the entire line, which came to include accessories and even fragrances. Indirectly, Y-3 also paved the way for other fashion-sportswear brand collaborations (as well as the advent of the designer sneaker), and helped establish a stronger, more frequently traveled bridge between the runways and the street—the impact of which, among other things, has been a profound increase in the speed with which the ideas and attributes of high fashion wend their way into how people dress in their daily lives.
The merging and intermingling of these disparate worlds has become an area of frequent exploration for a number of designers on both sides of the aisle—and one that Yamamoto has continued to examine, and even comment on, in his own work. In fact, it was at the end of a laser-lit, superhero-themed Y-3 show in 2010 that Yamamoto tapped into his considerable gifts as both a martial artist and a performance artist in delivering the aforementioned karate-chop, a sudden blow that leveled his opponent—after which the designer himself was swiftly taken out by one of his female models.
Filmmaker Wim Wenders, who memorably captured Yamamoto in his own habitat for the 1989 documentary Notebook on Cities and Clothes, recently reconnected with the designer, now 69, in Tokyo to discuss 10 years of Y-3, how he maintains his edge, and why it's still best not to mess with him in a dark alley.
WIM WENDERS: Where are you right now?
YOHJI YAMAMOTO: I'm just finishing up in my room at the office.
WENDERS: You always work so late.
YAMAMOTO: Where are you?
WENDERS: I'm in the office, too—in Berlin. But it's in the middle of the day here. So you had a long day again as usual?
YAMAMOTO: Very, very busy—and yes, that's the usual. You know, at this point, I've become like a clothes-making machine.
WENDERS: I don't know anyone who keeps the hours that you keep. But it's good to hear your voice. I wish I could be in Tokyo with you right now. We could go play some pool and eat some blowfish.
YAMAMOTO: Yes, I remember—the poison fish.
(Material from http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/yohji-yamamoto-1)
Yohji Yamamoto: 30 years at the cutting edge
Yohji Yamamoto is fingering the sleeve of my dress. He is telling me about the outraged reaction to his first show in Paris 30 years ago, and he suddenly stops. 'This is dirty!' Admittedly, the dress in question, an old Vivienne Westwood Anglomania number, is several years old and washed out. It was once black but has turned dark grey from too many washes. I didn't think it was actually dirty, though. His wise and open face, a little lined and weary around the edges, his eyes watery from a cold, breaks into a smile. 'It's beautiful.'
Yamamoto's office in Tokyo is what could reasonably be called a tip. It's a den, not an office. Behind his old wooden desk is a line of old leather boots. They could be there for research purposes but I suspect he simply forgot to take them home. There are several guitars in one corner, and the central circular table where we are now sitting looks as though somebody emptied a waste paper basket on to it. Space is made for a tray of tea, and Yohji clears a small area next to his pin cushion and dressmaking scissors - perhaps the only things on the table he actually uses - for his cigarettes. He chain-smokes throughout the interview.
Yamamoto speaks English fluently but stops a lot mid-sentence, for seemingly endless minutes at a time, deliberating on what he is about to say next. With relief I gradually realise that, in Yohji's world, 'dirty' is a compliment. 'Many journalists kept saying, "Yohji, why are you making such dirty clothing?" ' he is saying, referring to the way his clothes come in many shades of black and can often look worn in, a little distressed around the edges. 'But I was seriously thinking that those are beautiful compared to the established style of garment from other famous designers at the time. Dirty is good.'
On the eve of an exhibition at the V&A (I would say retrospective, but he dislikes the idea and chooses to ignore his 30th anniversary this year: 'Who is going to celebrate?' he asks quietly. 'I'm not. It's boring.') it is hard to imagine the hostility of the fashion world to Yamamoto's work when he unleashed it on an unsuspecting Paris in March 1981. He and his girlfriend at the time, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, showed clothes that bore no resemblance to anything the fashion world had seen before - Yohji's dark, voluminous, misshapen coats worn with huge brimmed hats that hid the models' faces - and the reaction from the fashion establishment was one of outrage, describing it as 'Hiroshima' and 'holocaust chic'.
'The Japanese Offensive!' was the headline in Le Figaro , adding, 'Is there a "yellow peril" on the horizon?' In 1983 the paper's fashion editor, Janie Samet, was still feeling under attack, describing Yamamoto's collection as 'a snobbism of rags that presents the future in a bad way'. In the International Herald Tribune , the then fashion editor, Eugenia Sheppard, called it 'suicidal'. The powerful trade paper WWD ran pictures from the collection with a black cross through them, describing it as clothes for homeless people who lived on station platforms. 'Intellectual Bag Ladies', the headline sneered.
For Yamamoto the headlines were deeply shocking and upsetting. 'At that moment, I didn't respect any designer. Any history. I was simply looking for the idea for myself, for my own excitement. So it was naturally out of trend, out of fashion. I was panicked by the reaction. I really felt I don't mean that, I'm not coming here to Paris to say something against the fashion. I just wanted to open my own small shop. That's it.'
But in a world used to immaculate strong shoulder lines, perfect linings, luxurious embroideries and glitzy buttons that had more to do with the wearer's status in life than with the practicalities of fastening a jacket, Yamamoto and Kawakubo's collision course with the establishment was set.
'It was big pressure [showing the following season]. At the beginning, my memories are of more than 70 per cent of the audience booing and 30 per cent understanding or welcoming. I remember… panic. From the next collection it became a war. I didn't want a war but too much attack made me fight.' And you are a good fighter, I say, referring to his black belt in karate. 'I am,' he nods. Rei Kawakubo's showing alongside him was, he says, important. 'When one designer is thinking like that there is not so much reaction, but because there were two, it meant "the army from Asia".'
It was not all hostile. British Vogue ran a story devoted to 'the Japanese' in 1982 and the newly launched Face and i-D magazines were the spiritual home for their radical designs. 'Gradually, gradually, it was becoming 50/50 between people understanding and not. When I felt that it became even, I felt comfortable. And afterwards when I felt I was welcomed by more than 70 per cent, I felt very uncomfortable.' He laughs. 'They started to call me master, maestro. So I was shouting in my mind, "No I'm not, I am just a dressmaker, fighting."
(Material from http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/tamsin-blanchard/TMG8298329/Yohji-Yamamoto-30-years-at-the-cutting-edge.html)
Yohji Yamamoto: “People have started wasting fashion”
Mr. Yamamoto, film director Wim Wenders said that when he bought his first piece of your clothing, he was fascinated because it felt new and old at the same time, and he felt protected by it. Would you say that describes your clothes quite well?
My starting point was wanting to protect a human’s body. This is the beginning, actually hiding women’s bodies. This is about sexuality, about protecting it. From the very beginning of my career I was not very sure that I would become a so-called “fashion designer.” The term “fashion designer” sounded very light.
What do you associate with that term?
When I think about the image of a fashion designer I think about trends. I have to think about what’s new, what’s next, what kind of feeling customers want. It’s too busy for me. So, from the beginning, I wanted to protect the clothes themselves from fashion, and at the same time protect the woman’s body from something – maybe from men’s eyes or a cold wind. I wanted people to keep on wearing my clothes for at least 10 years or more, so I requested the fabric maker to make a very strong, tough finish.
“I strongly believe in the avant-garde spirit: to voice opposition to traditional values.”
You say you wanted to protect the female body and your clothes often have a playful androgyny in them. Should men and women be able to dress more like each other?
When I started making clothes for my line Y’s in 1977, all I wanted was for women to wear men’s clothes. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman’s body. For me, a woman who is absorbed in her work, who does not care about gaining one’s favor, strong yet subtle at the same time, is essentially more seductive. The more she hides and abandons her femininity, the more it emerges from the very heart of her existence. A pair of brilliantly cut cotton trousers can be more beautiful than a gorgeous silk gown.
Over 30 years later, are people still too stuck up when it comes to what they wear?
I simply cannot stand people’s tendency to become conservative. There’s always a move back to established conventions, otherwise upcoming waves would be soon categorized as common sense. Even the term avant-garde – avant-garde is now just a tiny fashion category. It became so cheap and pretentious. I hate it. But still, I strongly believe in the avant-garde spirit: to voice opposition to traditional values. It is not just a youthful sentiment; I live my life by it. Rebellion. You will only be able to oppose something and find something of your own after traveling the long road of tradition.
You said in an interview that you hate fashion, yet you seem like you love it as well. Have you ever thought about giving it up? Quitting the fashion business?
About five or six years ago I felt strongly that my role was done. But nowadays, especially in Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles, everything is covered by fast fashion. Faster, faster, cheaper, cheaper. People have started wasting fashion. So suddenly, there was some space again for me to do something. Minor in terms of numbers, but there might be young people who have questions or doubts about this trend, they might be waiting for something to come back or for something new. So I said to myself: “Yohji, you can continue to do your job. Don’t change. You can just continue to do it.” I told myself this last year.
(Material from http://the-talks.com/interview/yohji-yamamoto/)
Yohji Yamamoto in conversation with Prof Frances Corner OBE
Yamamoto debuted in Paris in 1981. In an interview with the New York Times in 1983, Yamamoto said of his designs, "'I think that my men's clothes look as good on women as my women's clothing. When I started designing, I wanted to make men's clothes for women." More recently he has expounded: “When I started making clothes for my line Y’s in 1977, all I wanted was for women to wear men’s clothes. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman’s body. I wanted to protect the woman’s body from something – maybe from men’s eyes or a cold wind.”
His commercially successful main line, Yohji Yamamoto (women/men) and Y's, are especially popular in Tokyo. These two lines are also available at his flagship stores in New York, Paris, and Antwerp, and at high-end department stores worldwide. Other principal lines include Pour Homme, Costume d'Homme, and the diffusion line Coming Soon. Yohji Yamamoto Inc. reported in 2007 that the sales of Yamamoto's two main lines average above $100 million annually.
Yamamoto is known for an avant-garde spirit in his clothing, frequently creating designs far removed from current trends. His signature oversized silhouettes in black often feature drapery in varying textures.
Yamamoto's work has also become familiar to consumers through his collaborations with other fashion brands, including Adidas (Y-3), Hermès, Mikimoto and Mandarina Duck; and with artists of different genres, such as Tina Turner, Sir Elton John, Placebo, Takeshi Kitano, Pina Bausch and Heiner Müller.
Yohji Yamamoto was invited to curate the second issue of A MAGAZINE curated by in 2005, following Martin Margiela.
Poor decisions by finance managers pushed the brand into debts of more than 65 million US dollars in 2009, which angered Yamamoto and led to a company restructuring from 2009 to 2010. The private equity firm Integral Corp was identified as the Japanese company who will restructure the Yohji Yamamoto Inc and by November 2010 the company was out of debt and avoiding the risk of bankruptcy.