Excerpt: YOHJI YAMAMOTO. READY-TO-WEAR FALL 2023 - PARIS FASHION WEEK

 

"Yohji Yamamoto beautifully draped, yet furlong stylization is now so engrained into the fashion world, it has become the main driver of what has been known as the Avant-garde.  Introduced to Paris in the late 1970's, along side fellow Japanese designer, the formidable Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons fame.  It is a lesson for the remaining designers of the last 20 years that are still designing under that rustic guise of the Avant-garde, to which many have fallen by the wayside to one of the most exclusive and niche markets in fashion.  And if you don't have that financial backing i.e acquired by a conglomerate, the life cycle of some of these brands inspired by Yamamoto and Kawakubo, have dissipated more than they have appeared.  And it is Yamamoto's enduring legacy of over 40 years, to which he has not compromised his styles, achieved by luck and of course timing, such was the sweet spot of the late 70's and early 1980's; probably, in our saturated and corporate market places, could not be achieved today.  

So, it is fine to allow oneself to romanticize the 79 year old's backlog and history of the aging master, as one of the most stalwart risqué designers.  To imagine what it was like at his first show in 1981 during Paris Fashion week of that year at his small studio on Rue du Cygne, when the fashion press, in their lack of foresight and conservative attitude at the time, named in a derogatory manner the collection "Hiroshima chic".  Yet, both he and Kawakubo laid the groundwork for what later emphasize as asymmetrical cuts and layering of fine wools, cotton and linen, all under their stygian setting, that gave  these dark and evocative styles a podium to change couture and fashion world in general.  which forty years later,  Yamamoto's unique tune has been playing out to this day..."

___

Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/yohji-yamamoto-ready-to-wear-fall-2023.html

(A.Glass 2023)

Spring 2024 men's review soon.