Yohji Yamamoto is undoubtedly a lover of Paris. Even as other Tokyo-based designers – Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, Chitose Abe, and Jun Takahashi – opted against traveling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the designer, a mainstay of the French capital’s calendar for close to four decades, chose to be showed in Paris.
‘’People told me I’m crazy’’. But ‘’as soon as I made the decision to show in Paris, I stopped worrying; just do it’’, he quipped.
As the global fashion industry resets due to COVID-19, Yamamoto’s singular slowly-slowly approach is resonating more than ever.
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Staged under the imposing chandeliers of Paris City Hall, his collection started with a series of white and black looks that looked as if they had been knotted, draped and braided directly on the body. A series of minimalist, elongated silhouettes followed then they moved on to draped ankle-length tunics and experimental looks: copper wire was twisted into rough crinoline skirts, while a jacket covered in elaborate tendrils exploded into a punk version of a bustle.
If Yamamoto was reinterpreting his repertoire, he nonetheless arrived at new expressions of nonconformity. The collection closed with pieced-together ensembles in white faintly dusted with color.
This year has been a hefty year of collaborations for Yamamoto: his second collaboration with Hublot; a streetwear capsule with Supreme; and perhaps the most unexpected of them all, an automobile with Lamborghini.
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©Yohji Yamamoto