Yohji Yamamoto

[surver]

What does he say about Gaultier?

nothing of interest:

"Met for the first time in 1997; took Yohji's advice for JPG Ginza store opening"

[Faust]

Heh, and here I thought they were lovers!
Anything of interest that you could translate for us, surver?

[safeword123]

hmm.. i am surprised he didn't mention his son yuji yamamoto.

thanks for the universe chart, surver. it is a great visual presentation!

[Fade to Black]

I've always thought Yohji looked great in jeans.

[surver]

yohji as guitarist for ruichi sakamoto, 1999

[Faust]

Haha, awesome :)

[kagitsune]

Checking out his EDC/Wallet set-up...

Any confirmation for the Sakamoto pic? Like, is he credited on a live DVD anywhere or something?

[surver]

yohji (right) and his childhood friends; boy in the middle is Goi Hayashi, his business partner:



(source: TheOutlookMagazine April 2013 issue)

[AKA*NYC]

yohji as guitarist for ruichi sakamoto, 1999

i can't stop looking at this photo. the jacket, the guitar, the posture. this is the essence of cool.

[surver]

my first 'encounter' with yohji yamamoto was not his clothes but his signature in my pre-fashion conscious pre-teen years...

did/does he actually individually 'sign' each of his store signages upon opening (and then had the signages etched according to his signature)? kinda kool if he did/does...

[surver]

"300 years ago, black was the color of the farmer and the lower-class samurai. It wasn’t exactly black but an indigo blue dyed so many times it’s close to black. The Samurai spirit is black. The Samurai must be able to throw his body into nothingness, the color and image of which is black. But the farmers liked black or dark, dark indigo, because the indigo plant was easy to grow, and the dye was good for the body and kept insects away."


Yohji Yamamoto_New Fashion Japan_1984

[Faust]

my first 'encounter' with yohji yamamoto was not his clothes but his signature in my pre-fashion conscious pre-teen years...

did/does he actually individually 'sign' each of his store signages upon opening (and then had the signages etched according to his signature)? kinda kool if he did/does...

I don't think all stores have this signage. Actually, it's the first time I have seen this. And it is brilliant!

[MetroBulotDodo]

I was once invited to the yohji private sale in Paris by his PR and when I walked it was a Nigerian free-for-all. There were people just stuffing stuff in garbage bags (with the intention to sell). I also remember Christian saying that when he showed up at the rue Cambon flagship on the first day of the sale, there were plenty of Nigerians there. And you confirm that there is a Nigerian salesman there. So, that got me curious, that's all.

I was going to point out the same thing (wouldn't have mentioned that amazing annual sample sale except that it's invite only .)

Indeed, it was filled principally with mostly (west) African men and a few straggler fashion students.

My sense is that there is in fact a aesthetic coherence in Yohji's loose silhouettes and the silhouettes preferred by west African immigrants, particularly in Europe (less so in the US, if I am allowed to generalize.) Some of that overlap may have to do with functional reasons: the "healthier" body shape you tend to see amongst west African elites and a need for business clothing that can be "tropico-formal" in its use of silhouette and light wools.

The anthropologist participant-observer in me couldn't help notice that the preferred pieces being purchased by the west African men (very few women!) tended to be full suits with more decorative details.

I will probably lose my membership in the AAAs (Am. Anthr. Assoc.) for foregoing post, but whatever.

MBD

[MetroBulotDodo]

My first encounter with "major design" was the Yohji Yamamoto store on Grand Street. I'd gone in there a few times alone and being 19 was too intimidated to actually speak to SAs, whom I now usually chat up. Although I worked amongst high fashion uptown, helping with accounts like Galliano, CDG, and Margiela I never felt as intimidated as I did in the Yohji store.

It was the mid to later 90s -- an era I remember infused with grand gowns, spectacular draping and dramatic hats. In that space, the dresses hung up against the display windows that pedestrians could view from outside. The scale, the boldness and the expanse of fabrics: it seemed like they were made for formidable women only. Not girls.

It was particularly wonderful, then, that while hanging out at the showroom of one of our very own designers, I traded cards with the (very esteemed and forward) retailer who had opened that very shop; an affecting reminder of the evolution of my long and personally meaningful engagement with a world I hold dear to me.

MBD

[Faust]

Similar experience at that shop. People were nice though. Such a shame it's gone.