Yohji Yamamoto. Men's Fall 2024 - Paris Fashion Week.

Many moons ago, when I was Fourteen I bought my first fashion magazine.  And I remember one of the editorial's, which was quite risqué, but alas for its time it seemed normal.  And it has to be said many decades later that we, as a society, have become more conservative minded despite the distractive aspects of the recent so-called culture wars.  Our societal template is more aligned with closed off rigidness than not, as opposed to the said era (and one can speculate when I bought that magazine), when I was fourteen, that it was more, shall we say open.

I have always been aware of Yohji Yamamoto, as some of the more stylized goths of the 1980s were able to purchase his clothing, and it was the allure of black which was very much a Yamamoto imprint, when his first collection was revealed in 1977 at Paris Fashion week.  Then in 1982 with his former partner Rei Kawakubo of COMME des GARÇONS fame, revealed their "Black" collection, in which the Fashion press at the time, in an offhand and possibly derogatory manner, labeled the collection as "Hiroshima  Chic".  Yet, the irony, in light of the peak of the Cold War with Russia in the 80s, we could have all been Hiroshima Chic.  Cool heads prevailed.  But, alas it seems that we are back there again. 

My first review of Yamamoto's collection was his Y-3 collaboration with Adidas at New York Fashion week in 2013, ten years ago.  My review was short, sweet and to the point.  And after all these years, I have looked back over the photos of the 2013 show and noticed the slightly grey tint textured onto some of the model's hairlines.  Mostly around the temples and scalp.  And now when I think about it, a decade later after reviewing many of Yamamoto signature label shows and noticing that the grey tint in some cases, has covered most of the hairline on the runway models.  I now get what Yamamoto was implying with the youthful looks of his models.  We all age.  Considering that the models for his Y-3 show in 2013 were probably in their early 20s, Ten years later they would be in their 30s or older.  Which is about that time when one begins to go grey.

Yamamoto is now 80 years old, steadily showing his collections of the last Four decades, with every season at Paris Fashion Week.  The subtle and often poetic elements of Yamamoto have shone through, very much in tune with a Japanese ethic within its humble and meditative process.  Yamamoto has slowed down the runway presence, into a calm and detached way.  Pacing an acceptance, that we all live from past to present.  However for his Fall 2024 collection, the painted grey hairlines on the young models are not there, rather he has added older models with the younger generation.  While, in lieu of his Y-3 collections, which are aimed at 20 somethings, the Yamamoto stylisation only offers to mature the look of a person coming of age.  There is, when Yamamoto is not tweaking with their looks, a paradoxical imprint to his styles, a slight clash of aesthetics.  And one could even say, overall the collection seems out of place.  As Yamamoto's styles have not changed much over 40 years, the wartorn and aged look of the clothing does not match the models wearing them.  Hence the older models, collaborators and celebrities dear to Yamamoto, intermixed throughout the runway presentation.  So, it does feel like a clash of dualities.

Yamamoto's Fall 2024 array, within it mastery of its aging imprint, maintains the draped tailored and the iconic Avant-garde looks, which has been the epitome of inspiration for so many designers.  That, over the timeline of the early 2000s, when the worn, exposed stitching, fine wools and linen in its drapey, layered affair, reached a pinnacle in 2015, and has since declined.  As the costs of becoming an aspiring fashion designer in a neo-inflated world are now embedded as a fact of life.  So, in turn are the expenses of materials and production, which have priced out aspiration and unfortunately the multinational 'sportswear' conglomerates has been priced in, hence all the collaboration deals that have occured over the last Ten years.  The individualist aspect of fashion design could be at the cusp of extinction. 

And I view Yamamoto's shows as essentially a story about him, the motifs and prints on the clothing, with his name, in some cases written in a comical way, seen frequently on the designs, as have been images of him in reflection of the youthful models.  That it be his own homage, to a template that he had created over the course of his illustrious career.  So, one could be forgiven by saying that Yamamoto is self serving his own take on fashion, in the sense that it began with him, and it will end with him.  Which, in its spiritualist way of looking at Yamamoto's latest collection, there maybe no legacy thereafter.

Clothing and its aesthetics, like everything else, must fade and then perish.  The attempt in its early manifestations of the Avant-garde, in which Yamamoto was one of the key components, created an impression of the worn and weather beaten look.   A defining element of the human condition, to challenge the erosion of time.  To know how true that is, is to accept and never take it for granted.

A beautiful collection from Yohji Yamamoto.

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(A.Glass 2024)