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Yohji on What's Sexy

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  • laika
    moderator
    • Sep 2006
    • 3787

    Yohji on What's Sexy

    Yohji Yamamoto on What's Sexy


    Japan?s elegant king of
    noir and the creator of Adidas? Y-3 sneakers reflects on the rules of
    beauty, clothing as armor, and why it?s never okay to wear primary
    colors.












    1.
    I believe that there are three conditions to a woman?s beauty. First,
    you must realize that not all women are beautiful all of the time.
    Sometimes beauty comes on a subconscious level. When she is in love, or
    has met someone new and exciting, she shines. Second, you must
    understand that life is unfair. Beauty is something that, for some,
    must be worked at. The third condition is luck. Some women can just be
    lucky.




    2. My role in all of this is very simple. I make clothing like armor. My clothing protects you from unwelcome eyes.




    3. Color, for me, has too many stories wrapped around it. I like black, white, gray, and navy. Like a uniform.



    4. Life is better for beautiful people. You can become lucky if
    you are beautiful, you can become rich. But there is no truth in this
    definition of beauty.




    5. If you feel strongly about someone, go up to them. Pursue what you want in life. Why be shy about something like that?



    6. You can tell what a woman is going to be like in bed just by
    looking at her. There is a feeling about someone that comes from
    experience. When you?ve seen it once, you will recognize it again.



    7. Fashion cannot make you sexy. Experience makes you sexy.
    Imagination makes people sexy. You have to train yourself, you have to
    study, and you have to live your life.




    8. I love the back. A beautiful back makes a beautiful front. When you
    slouch, think about what happens to your front. You have to keep your
    back in the right position. This is where your spirit lies.




    9. Men?s clothing is about tiny details, and I hate that. I am very
    small and I look stupid in a perfectly tailored suit. I want to be able
    to wear things that don?t fit perfectly, with the sleeves far too long.
    I wish clothing came with no sizes at all. It would be much better that
    way.




    10. The biggest mistake you can make in fashion is imitation. If we
    keep on like this, fashion will die. There was a time when I used to
    fall in love on the street every day. I would see someone with such a
    way about them or such a flawless item that I would have to say, ?Stop!
    Please! That?s perfect.? That never happens anymore. Everything is too
    similar. Soon it will be only a T-shirt and jeans.




    11. I don?t think we should try to make space our own. I believe that
    as modern people we should live in mobility. We should always be
    moving.



    (from men.style.com)

    ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.
  • sbw4224
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2006
    • 571

    #2
    Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



    6. You can tell what a woman is going to be like in bed just by
    looking at her. There is a feeling about someone that comes from
    experience. When you?ve seen it once, you will recognize it again.



    Yohji is definitely a playboy.



    It's quite sad how GQ explains who Yohji is by saying he's the creator of Y3 sneakers.

    Comment

    • rach2jlc
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2006
      • 265

      #3
      Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



      Though I'm not sure Iactually agree with what he says, I think that there is a refreshing and playful honesty to Yohji's public statements and interviews, as exemplified in the above.Another, forexample, when he first started Y-3, I saw an interview where someone asked him why he started the collaboration. Instead of saying some PR bull in which he talked about sportswear, innovation, connecting high/low, etc etc, he just said, "Everybody has heard of Adidas. Very few people have heard of me. So, now maybe more people will hear of me." I found that honesty refreshing and a welcome change to the over-conceptualized, overly planned, overly "polished" hot air...or just plain nonsense...that comes out of most designers' mouths.




      Part of this might be because many of these interviews are conducted in what I'm guessing is his third language (after Japanese and French). In many ways, his English is a non-nuanced translation of what would be quite fluid in Japanese (or, at least, would have more connotations within a given sentence); but even in his native language he has a sort of quiet simplicity to him that is really quite nice.

      Comment

      • nairb49
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2006
        • 410

        #4
        Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



        I love it. Idealized, yes, but still.





        it is a shame though, that his claim to public fame is the Y3 sneaker and the myriad of fakes running around.

        Comment

        • Incroyable
          Member
          • Mar 2007
          • 38

          #5
          Re: Yohji on What's Sexy

          I like his cigarette.

          Comment

          • Faust
            kitsch killer
            • Sep 2006
            • 37852

            #6
            Re: Yohji on What's Sexy

            [quote user="rach2jlc"]

            Though I'm not sure Iactually agree with what he says, I think that there is a refreshing and playful honesty to Yohji's public statements and interviews, as exemplified in the above.Another, forexample, when he first started Y-3, I saw an interview where someone asked him why he started the collaboration. Instead of saying some PR bull in which he talked about sportswear, innovation, connecting high/low, etc etc, he just said, "Everybody has heard of Adidas. Very few people have heard of me. So, now maybe more people will hear of me." I found that honesty refreshing and a welcome change to the over-conceptualized, overly planned, overly "polished" hot air...or just plain nonsense...that comes out of most designers' mouths.




            Part of this might be because many of these interviews are conducted in what I'm guessing is his third language (after Japanese and French). In many ways, his English is a non-nuanced translation of what would be quite fluid in Japanese (or, at least, would have more connotations within a given sentence); but even in his native language he has a sort of quiet simplicity to him that is really quite nice.



            [/quote]



            I agree. Yohji knows he is a master - he doesn't need to ask Adidas people what to say. He doesn't behave like an employee, which most famous people today do - they are just employees, and they know it.



            And #7 - truer words have never been spoken - a woman's back is the sexiest thing in the world.



            Not sure that I agree with #6 though. Maybe I'm not experienced enough [:P]



            Laika, thank you for posting this.

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

            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

            Comment

            • sbw4224
              Senior Member
              • Sep 2006
              • 571

              #7
              Re: Yohji on What's Sexy

              I agree rach2jlc, I thinkone of the mainreason's Yohji comes off as sosimple, direct and honest is the languagebarrier. Even so, though, Ithink this is one of the main reasons he is so interesting. His interviews in the documentaryabout him also seem to lead me to this conclusion.

              Comment

              • rach2jlc
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2006
                • 265

                #8
                Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                [quote user="sbw4224"]I agree rach2jlc, I thinkone of the mainreason's Yohji comes off as sosimple, direct and honest is the languagebarrier. Even so, though, Ithink this is one of the main reasons he is so interesting. His interviews in the documentaryabout him also seem to lead me to this conclusion. [/quote]




                Yes, Japanese is a notoriously difficult language to translate into English and, as such, for speakers of both languages it presents certain interesting (and unintended) problems when conversing. Japanese is my second language and I know this all too well, unfortunately. But, with Yohji, as you said I doubt that he intends to come across exactly as he often does (even though the meaning is related somewhere in there). Nevertheless, the ambiguity of Japanese and its nuance just doesn't translate into English and so sometimes one gets this directness without meaning to do so. Whereas a Japanese word might have 50 meanings dependent on context and nuance, often there is only one way to translate it into English.




                Yesterday, I had a prime example of this. At the university where I teach in the US, a student was applying for a study-abroadscholarship to a Japanese University. He didn't get the scholarship, but even worse was that his rejection letter (written in English by the Japanese Dean there) was honest to the point of being downright hurtful. In Japanese, the letter would have been softly ambiguous (basically telling the kid that given his interview and rec. letters, he needed to have more life experience and training to be a good fit for the program), but the literal translation into English became something to the effect of, "You will not be accepted because your immaturity would cause great disruption to our program." So, needless to say, the kidreally had his feelings hurt over something that, in their native language, I don't think would have been said in that way.




                Anyway, I think that Yohji's directness has some correlation to this, even though I still appreciate the fact that he says exactly what he wants, when he wants (for example, during these interviews he doesn't have a PR/Translator on hand to translate perfectly everything he says... he does it on his own, which connects much with what Faust said).

                Comment

                • laika
                  moderator
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 3787

                  #9
                  Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                  You're welcome, Faust.



                  John, thank you for your posts. It's so interesting to hear your insights. I am curious to know your guess as to what Yohji means by "sexy"; and also curious to know what the Japanese equivalent of this expression would be. I feel like the word is very forced for him--he only uses it explicitly in one of his points. [*-)] In general, he seems more prone to use "beautiful," or "charming."




                  ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

                  Comment

                  • dontbecruel
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2006
                    • 494

                    #10
                    Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                    Don't want to answer for John but can I give my 10 cents worth? The word "sexy" itself is used a lot in Japanese so I expect that's exactly the word Yohji had in mind.



                    I think the real difference is that sexiness itself has slightly more ennobling connotations in Japan, where they don't really have a strong sex taboo like the US/Western Europe. I don't think the stark contrast between beauty and sex that you see is natural in that environment.



                    John, perhaps your Japanese is more subtle than mine and you see things differently.

                    Comment

                    • rach2jlc
                      Senior Member
                      • Sep 2006
                      • 265

                      #11
                      Re: Yohji on What's Sexy

                      [quote user="dontbecruel"]


                      Don't want to answer for John but can I give my 10 cents worth? The word "sexy" itself is used a lot in Japanese so I expect that's exactly the word Yohji had in mind.




                      I think the real difference is that sexiness itself has slightly more ennobling connotations in Japan, where they don't really have a strong sex taboo like the US/Western Europe. I don't think the stark contrast between beauty and sex that you see is natural in that environment.




                      [/quote]




                      I agree 100%. Sexy is often used in Japanese as a loan word (sekushi or ???)but as you mentioned, it isn't quite the "Paris Hilton" or Dolce&Gabbanaform of the word. Instead,I thinkit would be closer to what you mention... or whatwe would considerbeautiful, attractive, or maybe "alluring" would be the best word. I'm not positive on this (as it isn't a word I generally use in either English or in Japanese), but it seems as though the connotation in Japanese has less to do with emphasizing or separating thesexual element out from beauty, which I think it does in English.




                      As you mentioned, sex in Japan isn't considered a "dirty" thing. It is, instead, a natural part of a person's life and make-up and so wouldn't necessarily be separated from beauty, as I think it often is in English (or the west in general). In other words, sex would be the natural accompaniment to attractiveness or compatibility, not the Western/Christian "temptation" to be avoided in being "pure."

                      Comment

                      • laika
                        moderator
                        • Sep 2006
                        • 3787

                        #12
                        Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                        Thanks, guys.[51] That definitely clears things up for me. I wasn't thinking sexy in the D&G sense so much, but I did feel the word was too particular for all the things Yohji is talking about here.



                        It's interesting to think of sexiness or allure as being intrinsic to beauty..... Also interesting to think about what it means to be sexy when you are wearing clothing like "armor," as he puts it.

                        ...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

                          #13
                          Re: Yohji on What's Sexy

                          [quote user="laika"]

                          Thanks, guys.[51] That definitely clears things up for me. I wasn't thinking sexy in the D&G sense so much, but I did feel the word was too particular for all the things Yohji is talking about here.



                          It's interesting to think of sexiness or allure as being intrinsic to beauty..... Also interesting to think about what it means to be sexy when you are wearing clothing like "armor," as he puts it.



                          [/quote]



                          I'm all for such an interpretation. I'm moving to Japan!



                          I know on other occassions Yohji emphasized that he wants to provide mystery with his clothes, mayb that's what he means by "armor" - make sexiness covert, give it depth.

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

                          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                          Comment

                          • rach2jlc
                            Senior Member
                            • Sep 2006
                            • 265

                            #14
                            Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                            That's really interesting, Faust, because traditionally one of the main reasons that Kimono (and other traditional Japanese clothing items) were often so elaborate was because the elaboration itself and its connection with the body WAS what determined sexiness. Working in the fields, the commoners of pre-war days often went about more or less naked. As well, even today people bathe together in hot springs or men often take part in festivals where they go about more or less naked (called a "hadaka matsuri"). So, nakedness or the full exposure of the body didn't constitute anything prohibited or "alluring."But, the wearing of "armor," or elaborate garments of many layers that covered much of the body was exotic and alluring in the way it masked (while subtly highlighting) the full body itself. This is one reason why the geisha kimono are so decorated...

                            Comment

                            • laika
                              moderator
                              • Sep 2006
                              • 3787

                              #15
                              Re: Yohji on What's Sexy



                              Very interesting indeed! Would you mind saying a bit more?



                              I understand the decoration being the sexiness of the body; but how is "armor" connected to decoration? How does the protective aspect that Yohji talks about ("my clothing protects you from unwelcome eyes") fit in with the decoration of the body?

                              ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

                              Comment

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