yohji yamamoto
casual, comprehensive yohji deep dive for everyone to reference.
i’ve been obsessed with his ideas and the way he carries himself (as an artist and human), beyond that of the realm of clothing. yamamoto’s distinct voice is remarkably consistent across all of his interviews, books, lectures, etc– almost anything i can get my hands on in japanese english french articles videos papers, his story remains one and the same. he is not kidding when he says he is a genius at protecting his privacy– even when discussing extremely intimate feelings about art and life, he still keeps a mysterious shroud about himself– living his life in the same way he creates. this is what truly piqued my interest in his clothes. the idea that fashion is a philosophy and way of life is not a new one, but yohji truly lives his art, which is something i respect so deeply. like he and others who are fans of yohji often say, if what he’s doing makes sense to you, you will undoubtedly pick up on it.
“What i have longed to create, what i have believed in, what i have dedicated my life to is that formeless something floating in the mist. That mysterious something can be intuited only through the miraculous sensibilities with which humans have been endowed. It is pre-lingual, it can only be labeled an intangible asset. Such intangible assets exist but for an instant. They emerge in one moment only to dissipate in the next, they are possible only in the movements of a moment, only in a space that is raw and alive. It is meaningless to construct something and place it as an ornament. Things must be alive, they must be vibrant and in motion” (my dear bomb, p87) (more on this [“japanese design philosophy” + “traces of japan”] later)
when you picture the avant-garde, punk, anti-establishment– you probably wouldnt picture a pleasant, soft-spoken, well-dressed, older man. yet, it works. the young boy in him lives on to create. To yohji, his job as a creator of things is, in essence, to produce the counter-culture, to question the now.
history:
“In the depths of my soul, since childhood, a persistent sense that something is missing. more than anything this feeling of absence is my closest friend. It is the root of my clownish, buffoonish desire to be close to people, to be liked by them, to be of some service to them. It would be no exaggeration to say that this sense of missing something has been what has driven me to where i am today” (my dear bomb, p43).
the official notification of death stated that his father perished in the line of duty somewhere east of a mountainous region near baguio, phillippines. a lack of transport ships meant that soldiers were stuffed into modified fishing boats, which were easily and mercilessly sunk by patrolling U.S. submarines. growing up without a father in postwar Tokyo, yohji’s complex emotional relationship with his mother (and subsequently women as a whole), is a constant theme throughout his life’s work. Yohji sees a particular value in designing clothes for women, stating that a woman’s body is ever-changing, like the shape of sand dunes, and so designing clothes for them comes more naturally and more enjoyably to him than to designing clothes for men, whose standard of “fashionable” comes from a hegemonic European be-all-end-all sense of style– the suit. but this didn’t come out of nowhere– his mother was a dressmaker who worked in the notorious red light district of Kabuki-cho, in Shinjuku (more info in the nikkei asia article).
Initially, out of a sense of duty and desire to please his mother, Yohji squashed down his desire to become a painter in favour of attending keio university (top law school). unsurprisingly, when this drove him into a depressive state, he left for europe in his third year, where he visited rome. and then, shortly after his graduation, much to his mother’s dismay, he asked to work with her in her dressmaking shop. she was reportedly furious, and stated that he would have to go to at least go to dressmaking school. so he went to bunka fashion college, and began working alongside his mother who he loved so dearly. the rest is history. when she passed, he spread her ashes in the sea, to reunite her with the love of her life that she lost many years ago.
paris:
the freedom of paris is what attracted him there. unlike the overdressed, too-pretty folks of tokyo, milan, or new york, people accepted a relaxed look in paris (my dear bomb, p71). “I am not particularly fond of milan or new york. The approach to clothing in these cities is different. People there believe that clothing that sells is good clothing and they believe the job to be a matter of chasing the latest fads…paris, however, is different. Here people will look closely at the designs. If some among them tell me that they like the clothing, that they appreciate it, then that is enough for me” (my dear bomb, p84).
For eightish years, yamamoto lived and worked together with rei kawakubo, and started a ready-to-wear company. After five or so years, he suggested that enough shops had been established in japan, and they should try to open in Paris, a suggestion which she refused. So he left without her to rue de cygne, a very narrow street, and opened a small shop.
When yamamoto arrived to present his first collection in 1981, he was surprised to find that kawakubo was there too– she hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort. She was to debut a show in a hotel nearby, right at the time of yamamoto’s opening. The result was a certain kind of panic response to “Japanese invasion”-- newspapers wrote “The Yellow Army Arrives”. Kawakubo deeply resented the fact that her clothes were grouped under the “Japanese” category. kawakubo’s surprise appearance signalled to yamamoto that they would likely separate.
garments:
Yamamoto’s cutting, drapery, tailoring is all unmatched. His attention to detail and obvious love of the craft pours through in his work and in the way he writes about clothes. Rather than attempt to write about it myself, i will just offer yamamoto’s own words in this section. (WIP).
Women, androgyny, transsexuallness:
““In my philosophy, the word androgyny doesn’t have any meaning. I think there is no difference between men and women. We are different in body, but sense, spirit and soul are the same” (Anothermag wedding show article)
to be honest, i can’t tell if Yohji is a feminist or not. he has openly stated both that he hates women and that he wants to protect them. Yohji has always said (numerous times lol) that he wants to design “Men’s clothes for women”, a sensibility borne out of having no choice but working to create “doll-like” “sexy” dresses aimed at garnering the attentions of men in Kabuki-cho, rather than the comfort of women themselves. He’s stated that he wants to create clothes that women will want to buy for themselves. This has always been his goal–”When i began to make clothing my single thought was to have women wear what was thought of as men’s clothing. In those days Japanese women wore, as a matter of course, imported, feminine clothing, and I simply hate that fact” (my dear bomb, p30). Lots of interviews take the “he loves women” “he is a feminist” angle and he definitely plays it up, and it comes out of a place that i believe is very real and true.
Yet, he’s also said that he hates designing “clothing for bitches” (video #4), and oftentimes in a weird way makes a sexual connection to women who cover up more than display their skin– . He also straight up says (in a relayed conversation with who i assume was a lover) “I hate women” on page 18 of my dear bomb– not in an incel way, but more like, women never took care of me the way my mum did kind of way lol. I don’t really have any thoughts on this (besides the fact that i absolutely love the “men’s clothing for women” vision, which initially drew me to Yohji in the first place + only Yohji can execute this idea in such a particularly beautiful manner) but this theme is definitely there
the sources deep dive:
paper:
Yohji Yamamoto by Ligaya Salazar
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41418909
Rick owens interviews yohji.
https://archived.co/Yohji-Interview-by-Rick-Owens
Highly recommend you skim thru this. it will give you the standard repeated story background about him. however, i felt it to be the only instance in which he was slightly challenged about the way he presents himself, and he was definitely slightly more open than usual with his answers. i wish rick had pressed him a little bit more:
Yohji: i didn’t mean to shock, i just came to paris to open a small shop.
Rick: come on, yohji! I don’t think I believe that. I think you knew exactly what you were doing! You knew that what you were doing looked very different from the other stuff.
Yohji goes on to describe the events that unfolded in Paris with Kawakubo, when he got the sense that they would separate.
my dear bomb - yohji yamamoto and ai mitsuda, translated by james dorsey.
my dear bomb is a collection short thoughts, memories, passages, ideas, feelings, experiences. contained within the book are numerous collections of his approach to fashion, such as the importance of the shape of a garment, the fabric, the criticality of the button, the collar, the neckline, the pocket.
Nikkei asia - Describing his childhood life with his mother
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/My-Personal-History/Yohji-Yamamoto/A-childhood-of-endless-fights-Yohji-Yamamoto-3
SS99 Wedding collection article
https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/7437/an-invitation-to-yohji-yamamotos-s-s99-wedding
video:
For simplicity’s sake, i’ve numbered the videos rather than trying to cite them whole.
情熱大陸 Jounetsu tairiku (documentary series) Episode on Yohji
VID#1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TINmAOTA6VM
VID#2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=843DctcamoE
VID#3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuyDt7Phkok
though these are in japanese, if you are interested at all in yohji, i recommend you listen to him talk. the difference in his energy is noticeable, and it is wonderful to get a look at him analyzing and working in his own space (not unlike in the way that is described at the end of my dear bomb) as opposed to a “high-pressure english-speaking interview” setting.
VID#4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvBZiwC2VsQ
A Design Film Festival 2011: Yohji Yamamoto: This is My Dream
VID#5:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srKVtQxsn18
Oxford Union Guest Speech
VID#6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3zNtaeVTNo
Humble and kind as always, however his story is pretty much the same here again. He is older in this talk. He talks a little more about the reception of his work in the West as “dirty, broken” “Hiroshima-chic”,about the day that women’s wear daily (a newspaper) displayed his outfits with an X over the top, captioned “Sayonara”. Talks about the first time he is described as “anti-fashion”. He talks about the conflict between artistry and commercialism in fashion– “one side is business, one side is creation”.. “Business and making clothes are strongly connected… i buy the fabric, scissors, machines, pay rent… until then i pay everything before the customer even buys anything. It is a total gamble until you get customers, it is so terrible. But i love a gamble”... When asked about if any young designers stand out as close to his vision, he states that for now, after Alexander McQueen, there is nobody. He is pretty open about his perceived lack of vision in the younger generation, throughout multiple sources. He says he feels lonelier and lonelier walking on the non-mainstream side of the street (something he has repeated often), and the spread of fast fashion saddens him.
Joshibi University Interview
VID#7:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRlY0afJybs
Talking about young women in fashion, as Joshibi University is a private women’s college. There is a misperception that going to design school will make you a designer. He says, if you are a person who can’t make expressions with words, then express with clothes and art. Mentions what his role is as a person who creates things. Invites creators to question the whys– why are you making what you are making? He says, we can’t answer the final big question of “What is making things? Why are we making”, but he states plainly that “To create, is to break/destroy.” He talks about how right now, everything is about trends. Breaking trends, breaking the current conception of what is considered “beautiful” at this current moment, this is the essential nature of his work.
Inside Yohji Yamamoto's Fashion Philosophy | The Business of Fashion
VID#8:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSJsqYH-hK4