Yohji Yamamoto. Spring/Summer 2026 - Paris Fashion Week

 

Yohji Yamamoto's collection within the last 10 years, have been more about mortality, as the years pass, and so do the slowing down of his collections, at least, after over four decades of showing at Paris Fashion Week, a slower procession on the runway via the legions of young models who adorn his clothes.   From utilizing subtle and not so subtle wore torn looks, graying hair hairlines painted onto 20 something models, shedding of clothes, mixed paradoxically with the cocooning of clothing, as a protected, tomb like sheaths.  And with the passing of Giorgio Armani on the 4th September of this year, he was 91, ensured that Yamamoto maintains his sombre aesthetics for his latest collection.  Also, if you are interested, there is a photo of the late Giorgio Armani at the age of 46 in 1980, attending a cocktail party at Studio 54 in New York City with his iconic gray hair, whitened teeth and tanned features, albeit 'younger'.

Despite these celebrated icons, what keeps us in check and reminds us all, death is inevitable, Yohji Yamamoto turned 82 this year and with his latest collection, he has paid homage to the late Giorgio Armani, and it is undeniable of Amrani's impact on fashion, more so 1980s fashion of the 'Armani suit'.  That being power, sex and hedonism, a far cry, yet also correlating to the shared excesses of the era, from Yamamoto's avant garde, deconstruction of couture, born out of late 1970s and early 1980s countercultures, where the budding floor trader of a Wall Street firm goes on a date with a Manhattan gallery owner, he's wearing the Amrani, she wears the Yohji Yamamoto, asymmetrically cut, stylised black, drapey linen dress, and yes, they have sex later that evening.  Such was the era.

Yet, Yamamoto as exuded his subtle with the Spring/Summer collection, allowing the youthfulness of the models, even with the clothing looking wore torn with their brushstroke 'wounds'  makeup, the youth, more so this current generation of 20 year olds, could be the ones, in all of its hopefulness without expectation, will bring in the long overdue, and renewed counterculture, at least attempt to challenge the rigidity and oppressiveness of a Fascist leaning world. 

And in saying that, the stylised, exclusivity of Yamamoto's avant garde appears more evident with this collection as does the tribute to Giorgio Armani, with Zen like tategaki Kanji/Kana text on two of the dresses, the first, early in the collection, saying, "Reverse form, my own thing”, and the final outfit, which closed the show said, “Formless are sound, taste, and human striving; Offer fragrant flowers in reverence.”  Thus, was the use of red fabrics fused onto the last array of his stygian, draped outfits, aligning with Yamamoto's passion, despite the mourning, that being, a cleansing fire, which is the pulse of life, beneath the loss.  As Yamamoto, at the end of the collection, gave his deepest and most respectfully bow, removing his trademark hat.

May we know life, and its end.

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(A.Glass 2025)