From the Chiasmus Archive: Yohji Yamamoto. Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2017. (A.Glass October 26, 2016)

Yohji Yamamoto Spring Summer 2017 collection holds a sexy melancholic appeal within it’s Gothic array.  Off the shoulder looks, black bondage straps tightly bound around arms and necks, his trademark asymmetrical and reworked blazers which includes the shoulder pads – one of the notable trends of this year’s ready-to-wear.  His draped and avant-garde styles are changing into a more sexier, styled and purposeful concept.  Once again, a master like Yamamoto is still learning.  A note to students of fashion, it doesn’t stop, design and implementation is a constant evolution.  Dark and light should be crafted and molded so that it doesn’t appear overly stark and homogeneous – which I see with the newer avant-garde labels. 

Beautifully cut clothes, perfectly tailored with high quality fabrics, simplicity and the complexity, the subtle and blunt Sumi brushstrokes of the superior artist.  This is Yamamoto’s respect to Endo period Japanese art, white painted lips, cheeks, arms and backs.  A human canvas with the modesty removed, a sexual tension, see through cotton mesh tops, 赤紅 (Akabeni) crimson-red silk sashes, draped over black, asymmetrically styled cutouts, lots of flesh on display.  Tsitsit inspired tassels and loose threading drapes as an accessory influenced style to complement outfits. 

As you would expect from Yamamoto, there is darkness portrayed within his stalwart mastery, yet amongst the black we see white.  The polar opposites, but they are the same within the achromatic, neither reflect colors.  In their basic forms, it is the skill and that desire to find the intricate.

The eternal search for perfection.

“The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” Bashō Matsuo

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(A.Glass 2016)