Despite the merciless midday sun, swathes of fashion faithfuls were clad in all-black and jostling for space. Familiar acquaintances saluted each other with superficial warmth, peacocking their mix-and-match looks, while streetstyle photographers and aspiring bloggers feverishly snapped away. Outside Y-3\u2019s 2016 spring\/summer collection showcase, the scene was wild. Attendees hustled through a small Victorian trapezoid hall into the empty, luminous school gym of Lyc\u00e9e Carnot. A shared tension filled the air, manifested not only by the mannerisms of these buyers, editors and creative directors, but by the question in their minds: how would Yohji Yamamoto reinvent the adidas designer label this season?<\/p>\n
As we came out of the tight corridor, attendees quickly nestled into their allocated seating. There was an air of respect that was present. Those in the front row paid homage to the designer by wearing aviation and military-inspired works of past collections while younger audience members stood in the back row, pairing Y-3 sports caps and the brand\u2019s esteemed footwear with contemporary street attire. We were promised an interview with Yohji Yamamoto before the show began, but it dawned on me that the chances of even a short chinwag may be slim. As if attending a royal ceremony or a religious event, what were the realistic chances of meeting the man behind the revered modus operandi?<\/p>\n There I sat in the lofty school gym, in anticipation. Whispers were circulating that Yamamoto\u2019s celebrated Qasa silhouette would see a complex, webbed high-top reworking. In the midst of ponder, a coordinator rushed over to tell me that we were allocated five minutes with Yamamoto before the show, a strange upshot considering that most in the hall were already seated. I was ushered backstage, brushing past models donning long drifting pochos and black tracksuits offset by subtle colors that evoked this season\u2019s theme of \u201cmovement.\u201d Before I had the chance to digest the avalanche of new designs my eyes had been exposed to, I was positioned in front of Yohji Yamamoto.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My experience with the sought-after designer in the past was brief but memorable. In 2006, I was an exponent of his work, modeling his billowy range for Spring\/Summer 2007. I vividly remembered the collection\u2019s theme \u2018The Godfather\u2019 to correlate with much of my first impression of Yamamoto, who lingered backstage, checking up on every detail of the garments. He carried a sense of confidence and chilled out swagger that one would associate with an older school Sicilian crime boss. My judgement was rectified upon this encounter. Opposite me, Yamamoto sat slouched, draped in black, with his hat characteristically perched to cover the top part of his face. As he spoke, I leaned in to catch his words. While the manic production teams scurried in the background in pre-show madness, Yamamoto\u2019s courteous mannerism seemed to have a calming effect. The five golden minutes I was allocated was brief but it effectively proved the pensiveness in his work to truly reflect with his persona. After decades of interviews, the 71-year-old designer still paused to think deeply before answering the questions bestowed upon him. Moreover, his inherent wit caught me off guard in the form of a counter question.<\/p>\n AB:<\/strong> How are Japanese brands treated now compared to when you first started showcasing at fashion week? AB:<\/strong> Umm\u2026 I think it\u2019s pretty exciting, yeah. How do you approach your eponymous label versus the Y-3 brand? Heralded as a guru of deconstruction and draping, the avant-garde designer is known for his somber and mythical disposition in fashion. Never veering far from monochromatic tones, Yamamoto\u2019s enterprise began in 1971 when he founded Y\u2019s in Tokyo. Yet his presence on the fashion landscape was truly felt in 1981 when he debuted his ready-to-wear line at Paris Fashion Week. Alongside Rei Kawakubo of COMME des GAR\u00c7ONS and Issey Miyake of his namesake design studio, Yamamoto\u2019s creations reconsidered the female silhouette, ignoring the curves usually emphasized in body-hugging clothes that hyper-sexualize the female. Instead he presented coated garments that were deconstructed from motifs in menswear.<\/p>\n At the apex of Madonna\u2019s \u201cstreet urchin\u201d look of the mid \u201880s, sexuality was highlighted with pastel colors and bulky accessories, the polar opposite to Yamamoto\u2019s caliginous creations. Revolutionary and unmistakable, the designer carved his own niche, creating a new language between the clothes and bodies. This set the tone for genderless offerings on the runways in subsequent years. Appealing to an audience of wit and romance, Yamamoto believes his men\u2019s clothes look as good on women as his women\u2019s clothing. He once said \u201cwe are different in body; but sense, spirit and soul are the same.\u201d<\/p>\n The designer is vocal about detesting \u201cfast fashion.\u201d His philosophy to create something of sentimental value that stands the test of trends can be bewildering considering his large extensive output each season. With his own retailers in Tokyo, Sapporo, London, Paris and New York, in addition to a myriad of stockists worldwide, the Yamamoto empire stirs a ruckus each season with its three key labels, alongside coveted diffusion collections with Herm\u00e8s<\/a>, Mikimoto<\/a> and Mandarina Duck<\/a>, and collaborative works with creative icons such as Tina Turner, Sir Elton John, Takeshi Kitano and Placebo.<\/p>\n His values hark back to traditional Japanese design philosophy, where the resonances of nature override laminated ideas of \u201cperfection.\u201d His ideas may vary but are never blas\u00e9. Sculpted asymmetrical designs are layered with narratives in which French couture styles and Westernized fashion aesthetics are built from idealizing the optimistic golden ages of Belle \u00c9poque.<\/em> Elsewhere, traditional workwear inspirations drawn from post-World War II archive photographs of German rural workers serve their functional appeal. These themes are evocative standalones, but are even more empowering when coupled with indigenous Japanese details.<\/p>\n These utilitarian yet refined designs are accentuated by an underlying punk aesthetic. On the one hand, billowy trousers are paired with textured jackets and somber elongated gowns, decidedly oversized and unfinished, so as to retort the quintessential notions of fashion. On the other hand, large belt coats are paired with cropped trousers or the capris pants, popularized in a womenswear wardrobe in the late \u201850s \u2013\u2013 and styled with smart button-up shirts with rounded collars for a touch of modern grandeur. Such looks pay homage to classic wardrobing while also revitalizing traditional silhouettes, like the kimono, with new life.<\/p>\n Yamamoto\u2019s openness to experiment has blurred the line between ready-to-wear and haute couture fashion. His ideas are executed in two approaches. First he reconstructs formal shapes, and second he makes his experimental concepts comprehensible for the public. The first is largely seen in his namesake main line, alongside Yohji Yamamoto pour Homme and Yohji Yamamoto + Noir. The latter introduced more affordable and wearable offerings under the labels \u2018Y\u2019s For Men and \u2018Y\u2019s For Women, and most notably, the collaborative project with Herzo sporting giant adidas; a testament that sportswear and fashion can coexist.<\/p>\n Before the birth of the term \u201csports luxe,\u201d which is often poised in ambiguity by designers catering to the mass street-meets-runway trend, 12 years ago Yamamoto approached Nike with an idea. The designer was inspired by sneaker culture and felt that his works were too far-flung from the everyday audience. Believing that sneakers would be the product to ground his ideas, he approached the Swoosh to collaborate. The Portland brand kindly declined: \u201cThank you very much, Mr. Yamamoto, but we are never going to fashion, we are going only to sportswear.\u201d Yamamoto recalls countless times when questioned on how Y-3 found its footing. His next obvious choice was adidas, who welcomed his idea of merging two then polarizing realms.<\/p>\n The partnership which started with the 2002 women\u2019s collection, cemented as the Y-3 label in 2003, opened up a new genre as the first collaboration between runway designer and activewear manufacturer. With an emphasis on quality fabrics and the modest and audacious use of black, Y-3 is Yamamoto\u2019s monastic elegance in utilitarian form. The ebb and flow of layers take center stage, but in technically-advanced ways that celebrate motion and action. For Yamamoto fans, Y-3 is the pliable alternative of the architect\u2019s esoteric theories.<\/p>\n And pliable it was, the remarkably choreographed modern Chinese Tao Dance Theater opened the SS16 show with a striking repertoire. Pushing physical frontiers, the dancers used their spines as axis, rotating to develop moves in perfect unison while folkloric rhythms added to the ambience. As if to prove that in every austere state vitality can be found, the performance was a gesture of Yamamoto\u2019s perspective; that even traditions can be reinvented. As I sat gawking at the end of the 10-minute-long performance, Yamamoto\u2019s words lingered in my mind just as the show commenced. \u201dIt\u2019s our responsibility, to always make something new.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIt\u2019s our responsibility, to always make something new.<\/q><\/p>\n
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YY:<\/strong> In my career, I never thought Japanese fashion is fashion. Do you think Japanese fashion is fashion?<\/p>\n
YY:<\/strong> I made Y-3 brand more easily understandable than my main collection. This is the difference. This is the only difference.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/thatdope.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1464377490_774_Yohji-Yamamoto-Innovating-with-Reason.jpg\")
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