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Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons

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  • laika
    moderator
    • Sep 2006
    • 3787

    Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons



    Sometimes I just love Suzy! [64]



    October 2, 2007



    By Suzy Menkes



    The Japanese hold on avant garde fashion has existed since the
    1980s. But 20 years on, it cannot be reiterated too often that there is
    no such thing as "Japanese design" - rather a group of exceptionally
    creative individuals.



    After a beautiful and graceful show from Yohji Yamamoto, using
    liquid silver to rearticulate all he loves about women, his daughter
    Limi Feu will take to the Paris runway for the first time on Saturday.




    In many ways, the designers who work in the studio complex of Comme
    des Garçons are Rei Kawakubo's fashion children. But instead of reining
    their creativity to her own remarkable talent, she lets them free when
    she thinks they are ready.




    Junya Watanabe was the first of her protégés to take flight. And his
    show Tuesday proved why his mentor should have confidence in him. After
    a couple of hesitant seasons of pleasantly wearable clothes laced with
    rock 'n roll, Watanabe took a new departure.




    Toga-like drapes in bright colors came out on models with straw
    trilbies perched on broken shards, as though Julian Schnabel had taken
    a hammer to mirrored glass and dropped the results in their hair.
    Later, the same drapes and bunches of fabric appeared in Liberty
    florals, hinting at the references to ancient Rome and Art Nouveau seen
    on other runways.



    So what was Watanabe's inspiration for the show?




    "African roots," he announced backstage.




    The creative mind has its own rhythms and meanderings. And with the
    Japanese designer's pronouncement, it suddenly became clear that
    Watanabe was working lengths of fabrics shaped and draped in a way
    indigenous to folklore, but hard to achieve in Western clothing. This
    collection was both a departure for Watanabe from his rock 'n roll
    inclinations and also nearer to his mentor's.




    Yet Watanabe has his own spirit and it was beautifully expressed in
    this show. To add a twist to the graceful folds, there were other
    themes - a riff on a Chanel jacket but in a puckered sports-look fabric
    with gilded braiding and worn with loose shorts. There were even a few
    examples of elegant tailoring in tightly fitted jackets.




    Was all that "Out of Africa"? Who cares? It was a strong, lively show celebrating a creative spirit.




    Tao Kurihara is yet another protégé nurtured by Comme des Garçons and for the designer's first major show of the Tao label, outside salon presentation, she had a message: "My own holy tribe."




    You could take that to mean the designer's native identity -
    especially as the indigo that touched the early part of the show turned
    dark as a Japanese fisherman's work wear by the end. But the more
    probable explanation was that Tao feels that she is designing for her
    own generation, on the cusp of the 20s with 30's, leaving behind the
    girly years.




    Although there was a touch of pink in one of the charming knitted
    hats that stood up like towers and in the sequins decorating the
    forehead, the designer's approach was young but graceful rather than
    frivolously cute.




    White cottons, with tucks and lacy inserts, were in the
    fresh-as-a-handkerchief spirit Tao has expressed before. But she
    introduced many new elements, from polka dot patterns that showed
    through the long white dresses like a chef's trousers and even floral
    prints. They were all used on dresses with those indeterminate,
    follow-the-body shapes that are identified with Comme des Garçons. But
    it is Kawakubo's strength that she lets her one-time assistants develop
    and express themselves. Tao did that beautifully.




    Yohji Yamamoto is a seasoned fashion player and in
    his spring/summer show he visited familiar territory, but the dark
    sweetness of his collection was still full of grace, as hooped
    crinoline frills rippled over simple black pants and overalls turned to
    reveal silver chains suspended at the back.




    There are moments when you feel that a designer is expressing the
    soul of a fashion consciousness. "This is what I believe in," Yamamoto
    seemed to say: a womanly take on a man's world, the erotic power of the
    half-bared back, black used with different textures as a color and
    highlighted by silver, like the moon on dark water.




    The show, with its elongated silhouettes and sculpted
    reinterpretations of crinolines, was Yamamoto at his romantic best. And
    if he has worked this territory many times before, it was done with
    pure conviction.



    ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.
  • LanceP
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2006
    • 116

    #2
    Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons

    Nice article. Thank you laika.

    Comment

    • Fuuma
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2006
      • 4050

      #3
      Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons

      Thanks for the article, while I didn?t take the time to post my impressions in all the threads, I do agree with the sentiment that the Japanese designers have had an incredibly creative season. I was greatly impressed by Comme des Garçons (sorry Faust), Junya, Yohji, Limi Feu, Tao, etc.

      Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
      http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

      Comment

      • laika
        moderator
        • Sep 2006
        • 3787

        #4
        Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons

        ^Not to mention Michiko Suzuki in Tokyo and Naoki Takizawa in New York. Truly an outstanding season for them all, and I was so pleased that Suzy gave them some coverage....Cathy Horyn doesn't seem to review Japanese designers, other than to mention them in passing. [:^)]
        ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

        Comment

        • Fuuma
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2006
          • 4050

          #5
          Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons



          [quote user="laika"]^Not to mention Michiko Suzuki in Tokyo and Naoki Takizawa in New York. Truly an outstanding season for them all, and I was so pleased that Suzy gave them some coverage....Cathy Horyn doesn't seem to review Japanese designers, other than to mention them in passing. [:^)]
          [/quote]




          The Takizawa show was great, I just blanked when the time came to write his name. I haven't seen the Michiko Suzuki show....

          Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
          http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

          Comment

          • laika
            moderator
            • Sep 2006
            • 3787

            #6
            Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons

            ^Michiko Suzuki, AKA designer of Y's Red Label. [73]
            ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

            Comment

            • Faust
              kitsch killer
              • Sep 2006
              • 37852

              #7
              Re: Review: Yohji Yamamoto and the fashion children of Comme des Garcons



              [quote user="laika"]^Not to mention Michiko Suzuki in Tokyo and Naoki Takizawa in New York. Truly an outstanding season for them all, and I was so pleased that Suzy gave them some coverage....Cathy Horyn doesn't seem to review Japanese designers, other than to mention them in passing. [:^)]
              [/quote]



              Cathy definitely has her faves. I am waiting for a day when she will say something negative about Balenciaga. It's long overdue, really.

              Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

              StyleZeitgeist Magazine

              Comment

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