From the Chiasmus archive: "Yohji Yamamoto. RTW 2022. Paris Fashion Week." Posted on October 4, 2021

(Images: Yohji Yamamoto. 2021)

Forty years ago, in 1981 a 38 year old Yohji Yamamoto debuted his first prêt-à-porter collection for Paris Fashion Week, returning every year since to Paris, he, with his contemporary Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons fame not only brought the Japanese ethics of wabi-sabi ( 侘 寂 ) and their unique take on post war Japanese modernism, they also inadvertently reworked couture by redefining the structural aspects of precision fashion by incorporating the avant-garde. It was however a younger Yamamoto who defined black as a base to form his now familiar silhouettes and its rawer take on the designer fashion, while offering the exclusive delineations of his creations to European and American markets of the day.  

As noted with his Ready-to-Wear Fall showing in June of this year, it was a far more somber and broken down stylization by the master designer, to which I observed the Fall 2021 collection having a vastly more deconstruction feel than previous seasons or at least building more into his ‘war torn’ and beaten looks of 2019 2020. But, I wonder if it has concluded with his latest collection, while offering the modernist pose with its constructed styling, although Yamamoto’s signature avant-garde flair remains intact, now with runway shows returning he has offered a more ethereal, spectra like array.  

With its residual etiolation of the gothic, the detailing and accessories of the last seasons styles have been replaced with a simplified and as mentioned, a more composed presentation which aligns towards the earlier manifestations of Yamamoto’s shows of the last 20 years. However, the Fall 2022 showing does not feel like a anniversary celebration nor a definitive return to the runway, there is, deep within the skilled craftsmanship of the styles presented, Yamamoto’s appeal, maybe even longing, of the sibyl and her awareness that calamity is all but part of life. So, the spiritualist overtures of the feminine that, under Yamamoto’s masterful direction keep in line with her somber resolve, in an awareness that there will be further crises facing humanity, not just in the present timelines but of the futures thereafter. 

The use of fine wools and linen to which Yamamoto has crafted with a finesse over his 40 year career, maintain the flowing styles, contoured and refined to accentuate the layered and tweaked looks. With similar collections of the past in mind, Yamamoto has refined his balmoral looks of the last four decades, stripping them back, revealing a barer and risqué glamor. Yet, his Spring 2022 offers the Japanese Yūrei, that are the wandering ghosts bound to this tumultuous Earth.

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(A.Glass 2021)