Excerpt: YOHJI YAMAMOTO. SPRING 2024 - PARIS FASHION WEEK.

 "Yohji Yamamoto turned 80 in October 2023 and I have been reviewing his shows for nearly a decade, and I've aware of his brilliance as far back as the 1980's.  Yamamoto, to me is that quintessential 1980's designer, who, along with his partner at the time Rie Kawaboro of Comme des Garçons fame, redefined European fashion when they first appeared on the scene in the early 1980's.  It was the beginning of Avant-garde fashion as a runway spectacle, replacing some of the risqué of punk fashion, that had become somewhat of a trend in the years after 1977, via the late Vivienne Westwood.  The Japanese Avant-gardists such as Yamamoto and Kawaboro, brought the starkness and a bold layering, with their silhouettes encased in stygian void.   Upping the ante of workmanship of their extensive use of materials such as linen and fine wools, while masterful presenting their collections within its dark mystique.  Yamamoto and Kawaboro's impact on fashion will probably never be seen again, despite designers of today attempting to shake up the industry, it has been for the most part only seen as a simulacrum of what had already occurred, over thirty years ago..."

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Full review:chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/10/yohji-yamamoto-spring-2024-paris.html  

(A.Glass 2023)