Yohji Yamamoto. Mens Spring 2020 - Paris Fashion Week

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable: Gorunway.com)  

Yohji Yamamoto is probably one of the most significant fashion designers of the last thirty years, the late Karl Langerfeld may be credited with modernizing couture, but it was the Japanese designers who descended onto Paris in the early 1980 which, included Yamamoto revealing their unique distinction of stylization of couture, introducing new fabrics and pattern work to the runways of Paris.  These were the essential aspects that challenged the traditional and reinvigorated the contemporary avant-garde to what we know of today.  

There maybe a weariness creeping over the famed designer.  I have noticed this with prior shows, his expertise is evident, precise and focused.  Yet, at times it lacks the depth and passion that could be seen in early showings.  This wold be a normal attribute of man who has consistently shown, with his signature brand, at Paris Fashion Week for over three decades, whilst juggling two other companies, the Adidas Y-3 relationship and Y's, his first brand, which he reinvigorated in early June 2019 with its return to the runway after 5 years of hiatus.  Yamamoto holds a paradox that most well known fashion designs develop throughout their careers, slight contradictions within their an ebb and flow of artistry, that at times is hard to pin down in a coherent way. 

Such is latest showing for Spring 2020 menswear, the fawn and disheveled look of the models, as though they are just going through the motions.  Messy unkempt hair, tired and restlessness. Tinges of anxiety were apparent with Yamamoto for his latest showing, as he descriptive wording on some of the clothes of 'holding on' a random insult “mother f*cker” can be seen on the back of one of the shirts displayed.  He has fears, like most of us and they are warranted.  We, as a global society are facing some astoundingly challenging aspects, from climate change, through to food shortages and rising geopolitical tensions between the superpowers.  A new cold war as arrived, yet our interlinked and digitally connected networks have created, not intentionally, an illusion that all is well.  But, the discord is there, seen through a pettiness of so-called polarized beliefs in its paranoia, that our rights are becoming more and more diminished.  Have fueled a time wasting culture war that, although is fading out, was an embraced distraction from the events that will effect all of us.  Especially with America and Russia/China tensions in the Middle East, which is the current Iran standoff and the proxy wars that have spilled out onto the streets of most cities in the world. 

Yamamoto's Spring 2020 collection, as mentioned, feels burnt out.  Almost defeated.  Despite the couture impressions, it feels awkward, unsure of its self, directionlessness.  He insisted from his previous Fall showing that there was a desire to create a distinction of masculinity again in clothing.  One of Yamamoto's other fears is the removal of the male identity, particularly, from what he views as the distinction of male and female attire is dissipating.  With his Spring collection, he has somewhat resigned to the idea that it is all but irreversible as an imprinted aesthetic.  This fear is most likely overblown. 

Our changing climate is not.