Yohji Yamamoto. Men's Spring 2021 - Paris

(Images:  Yohji Yamamoto.  All credit)

How do you redefine mastery in the face of extreme uncertainty?  As Yohji Yamamoto's illustrious career has decreed, that surpasses over three decades of being a fashion designer, is now confronting, like everyone else, a global viral outbreak that we have not seen the likes of in over a century.  As governments continue to fumble their response to this pandemic with a mixture of politicized rhetoric and economic concerns, after synchronizing the global shutdown that lasted no more than 5 months and ending in July 2020 at the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere summer, there was a conjoined reopening process as a timed global lifting of restrictions, which also included the Southern Hemisphere as the winter flu season is about to hit.  Was orchestrated, in a rushed way, on the back of a hopeful return to tourism, has not only thrown into the mix the likelihood of more shutdowns and re-openings in an ad hoc sporadic effect, but its becoming more aligned towards the chaotic and one could also say, a loss-of-control of the pandemic.  Although more concerning recently was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising the World Health Organization that Covid-19 could be airborne for hours in close spaces.   So at the end of the day, we all may have to endure on and off lock downs indefinitely.  Until a vaccine. 

Still, the creative must continue on and Yamamoto for Spring 2021, without the traditional runway show, has put forward a tempered collection of 23 pieces.  Specifically of late, Yamamoto for his men's styles has expressed the furlong, bedraggled and slightly beaten down array.  The war torn masculine look offers a resilience which, when done correctly is very appealing in its style.  That he maybe broken, but not defeated.  Warranted, more so when the distinction of looks that Yamamoto portrays under his stalwart signature brand, have assisted in the aging master to set apart the old from the new, whilst defining of the now, that is our current predicament.  Fashion, as an aesthetic can, when done skillfully, achieve this, to which Yamamoto's latest digital non-runway collection has succeed. 

There is a rugged undercurrent with his latest Spring ensembles, beautifully layered and presented, it does however allow the blunt spectrum of toughness, as Yamamoto has removed any of the subtle, which I've noticed with previous seasons.  The romanticism of past resonation seems stripped back, with the rawer condition revealed.  Fitted jackets and coats, cut and molded into formal, yet casual styles on the male models, fine cottons, wool linen and denims.  The draped, gothic and military influenced looks, as noted with past shows, reflect Yamamoto's enduring qualities of longevity and introspection.  That the master, any more less than the layman must accept and realize that the future is void.  Dark.  Nothing.  And if a question is to be asked about how one copes with uncertainty, the answer is; it's always been there.