Tweet
Thought I'd type out this great interview I read in i-D Magazine with Yohji. It's goes a little into his relationships with women, including his mother and daughter. An enjoyable read if you're a fan of the man like myself.
i-D Magazine Interviews Yohji Yamamoto
Issue No.284 February 2008
Terry Jones
We meet up with Yohji Yamamoto, smiling, joking around and
doing martial arts after his daughter Limi Feu?s debut catwalk presentation in Paris.
Having produced a sublime spring/summer 08 womenswear collection for his main
line ? a modern, dark romantic show of voluminous skirts, sculptural silver
crinoline, with unexpected flashes of floral dragon print and erotic half bared
backs ? it is clear Yohji is having fun reinterpreting his men and women?s
classic oversized silhouettes.
[...]
Back in Paris and Yohji?s mother is shopping in the organic
farmers market on the weekend of the show and on witnessing first hand the
light in her eyes as we greeted each other, I recognized the true sparkle that
is also in the eyes of her son. She definitely adds to the secret of Yohji?s
success.
Your mother has always been very important to you, what
was your upbringing like?
Life was very tough; it always is going to be very tough.
After my father died, my mother made up her mind not to get married again, she
decided to start working. It was very difficult with just mother and son.
How did that make you feel?
As a child I watched my mother working so hard, I was scared. I understood
very quickly that life is not easy, and at that moment I decided I should
finish my life as soon as possible. That was my dream for so long. Even as a
child I was already mentally very old. I didn?t want to hit the reality of life
or society; I didn?t want to do anything. I didn?t want to work. It was very
tough. My mother was working everyday, while her son was staying at home doing
nothing.
Do you see yourself as her protector or provider?
Maybe as her protector. Sixty years have passed since my
mother started working. Japanese society is naturally very unfair to women. In
women are not human beings, for example when my mother wanted to borrow money
from the bank, because she is a woman, the bank people didn?t treat her very
well. So I started to watch the world through my mother?s eyes and naturally I
realized I needed to protect her.
Are there any other iconic women in your life besides
your mother?
Let me say I have three femme fatales; firstly my mother,
secondly? the situation is very complicated so I cannot name her, but you can
imagine?
One woman is not enough?
Not enough, not enough. I have no desire for anything else.
I have no taste for property. The story is more interesting when I talk about
art. When I was a boy at primary school my teacher and my mother realized I was
very good at drawing and painting. It came very naturally to me. So when I
stand up in front of art, whether painting, sculpture or architecture, I feel
simply this is doing? In that way I don?t like to be influenced by art. I will
always be interested in people.
Your never knew your father, but there are people who?ve
definitely influenced your life, who impressed you most?
I think my father did influence me. Sometimes when I am very
tired or when I feel lost, I can feel him there. I have no memory of him but
he?s there. When I read the work of the famous Japanese writer, Ango Sakaguchi
? he?s not famous in the rest of the world because his Japanese is hard to
translate ? who is exactly the same age as my father, I found he was the father
I?d been imagining. He became my Bible. He inspires me.
Which is more important ? fashion or women?
Women are important. First comes women, and fashion just
follows.
Why are women so special?
Because I loved my mother, and I still do. She?s always
there. It?s important for a boy?s mother to be there, always punishing, always
checking. I always want to come back to the mother?s body.
Do you give advice to your daughter?
Oh, my daughter. Our connection is very special because I
deserted her mother when my daughter was three or four years old, so we have
about thirteen lost years. Then one day I had a phone call from her
grandfather, ?Hey Yohji, why don?t you come, we can?t handle her, it?s almost
impossible?. So I say ?Ok, I am coming?. It was very far; it took two hours by
car. But I went right away. When I arrived my surprise was that she was twelve
or thirteen years old and already a young woman. She had done some very wrong
things, and had been arrested by the police so I took her to Tokyo.
We started out again together, just the two of us, and she didn?t complain at
all about my absence. We lived together for four or five years. The only times
she was not happy was when I introduced my girlfriends.
Was this a big problem?
Yes, but it depended on the type of girlfriend. When my
girlfriend was her type, she thought she was very nice. Then my daughter would
tell me ?Father, she?s beautiful?.
Did you listen to her advice?
I would do the same to her. When she had a new boyfriend she
would call me at the office and say ?My new boyfriend is waiting to say hello
to you, what time are you back?? In that way our connection was unique.
It sounds like your family dynamic has a very special
dynamic.
Very special, yes.
Would you say your dreams have come true?
My situation now was never my dream. When I was younger I
wanted to be nothing. My ideal life was just to be a man or a husband. My
mother had a very small dressmaker?s shop, and from that money I graduated in
to a very famous person in Tokyo. When
I was a third year university student I?d already decided I was not going to
work for a famous company, or be a businessman at a big company.
You never wanted to be a corporate man?
No, no way.
Did you ever think about being a musician?
Oh yes. Most of my friends did something with music;
sometimes together we made a band.
Did you do karaoke?
Back then we didn?t have karaoke. Karaoke only started about
twenty years ago.
Do you have a soundtrack for your life?
Yes, I have. It?s not very melodious; it?s kind of a
poem. It?s always numbered in my brain. I tried to write lyrics, but I
found that I have no talent.
I know you?re a Bob Dylan and Tom Petty fan?
Yes, but early Bob Dylan, early Beatles, early Rolling
Stones? when I was a university kid I was always listening to jazz, Thelonius
Monk, Miles Davies, a friend of mine Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson?
We?re the same generation. Did you ever see John Lee
Hooker or any of the great Blues bands play?
Never, I missed them. I?ve only seen them on DVD. Back then
American people didn?t accept black people?s music, only European people
accepted it.
What car would you drive if you were in a road movie?
For me a movie has to be a road movie. I used to love
Mercedes 280 SE, but on my road trip I?d drive a Harley Davidson. I?d drive it
across the
from East to West. Hopefully I?ll do this in two year?s time. This is my dream.
So you have the car, now you need the woman and the
soundtrack.
Three elements, yes. When it?s my birthday, people ask me,
?What do you want as a present?? and I tell them I have no interest in
property, so I have to think and think, and decide maybe old gifts from 1945.
So if I ever drive in the
in the back seat I can bring a guitar.
Did you teach yourself or did you have a teacher?
Half and half. With designing I started out by myself and
had no teacher. But I created a very small music company 15 years ago, and made
three or four albums\s, at that time I took lessons from professional artists.
You were in a band?
Yes. People call me a designer, but when I?m surrounded by
designers and artists I don?t feel very relaxed. Musicians, such as guitarists,
are the type of people I feel most comfortable with.
If you find playing music so relaxing, what keeps you designing?
There are happy moments in my job, for example the moment
just before starting the next collection. I start imagining and looking for
ideas, and by the time we start the first fitting I feel very happy because
something very beautiful and exciting is taking place. When my team is in a
very good condition they create something very, very fresh and exciting to me.
At that moment I feel this is a gift. It can be totally different from my first
idea, but I don?t care if it?s something I?ve never seen in my career before,
the fitting moment is my most happiest moment ? ?wow?.
Do you enjoy working with people?
It?s like making a film, designing it?s a team job so
cooperation is important. It?s very similar to being a conductor or film
director.
Do you have many women in your team?
Yes, of course. Men love women, but he cannot create a
masterpiece for her, because he is not a woman, so he doesn?t know the real
soul of a skirt, or a dress. In my studio I let boys make only men?s clothing,
all tailoring.
Who do you have in mind when you design?
I make clothes for real women, not for professional fashion
models. For women who make love, work hard, do anything, it doesn?t matter. I
want to step in to a woman?s spirit and soul, like the famous quote by Freud, ?Despite
my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, I have not been able to
answer? the great question that has never been answered: what does a woman
want??
What women want is a life pursuit? it has to remain a
mystery. Do you believe in reincarnation?
No, we have one life. After dying there is nothing. For
example when I am staying in Paris
and my mother is in Tokyo, if
something happens to her I feel it. It is in this way that I believe in spirit.
If this moment is very exciting and I?m having a lot of fun, I don?t care about
tomorrow or yesterday. I simply enjoy this moment. No zombies, please.
Do you think the life we lead today, is driven by all
things commercial?
Yes, we get worse and worse. Beautiful things, like culture,
are disappearing every day.
What are you working on at the moment?
I have been invited by the Chinese government to make a
fashion show in Beijing in April.
It?s a very official request, and the first time the Chinese government have
invited a foreign artist to put on a fashion show, so I accepted. We?re going
to work with Sotheby?s and sell all my collection at an auction, and with that
money I?m going to make a Yohji Yamamoto Foundation which will help young
Chinese students go abroad to art colleges. This is a very tiny thing, but for
me it means double because back in my father?s generation the Japanese army did
terrible things to Chinese people, and we didn?t apologise properly yet. So
it?s my patriot concern, which my young studio people don?t understand.
Recently I started to think European people created the EU; maybe Asian people
should make the AU. Only artists can make it.
Comment