Arts & Culture

Fashion often begins with being 'in';  it's something that moves us to look and follow new trends. Identity and personal style are 'out' for the fashion industry.

Japanese designer, Yohji Yamamoto creates clothing for people who are creative, independent and in search of their own individuality. Indifferent to stereotypes, he molds fabric into original, intellectual, texturized pieces and teaches us how to love them, live with them and never treat them seasonally. Layered and comfortable, often oversized, his clothing is for protection. His aim is to protect bodies but also to protect clothing itself from fashion.

When Yamamoto presented his first collection in Paris 1981, his style was considered a passing fad, marginal, a mere copy of the contemporary street looks of the East. As with any acquired taste his creations were never in or out of style. He remains provocative, a brave rebel challenging "nowadays, especially in Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles, (where) everything is covered by fast fashion. Faster, faster, cheaper, cheaper. People have started wasting fashion".

Notebook on Cities and Clothes is a documentary film about Yohji Yamamoto directed by Wim Wenders. Not interested in fashion or clothes himself but faced with this assignment, Wenders decided to make a documentary about the designer whose shirt and a jacket he was wearing, whose clothing made him feel as safe and protected as "the knight in the armour". They search for originality and humanity in the world that is becoming a commercialized copy.

In 1994, Yamamoto received the Knight Order of Arts and Letters from France. In 2011, the Victoria and Albert Museum held a retrospective exhibition of his work, and in 2013 Berlin’s Gallery Weekend had a four-day marathon of iconic pieces from the last 30 years of his career.

Now 72 years old, Yohji Yamamoto is still an anti-fashionista and an introspective conceptualist who takes a critical stance on the fashion world: “I hate fashion. Or the word fashion, which sounds colourful, extravagant, expensive and gorgeous, I never wanted to walk the main street of fashion. I have been walking the sidewalks of fashion from the beginning, so I’m a bit dark.” As he insists, his "soul comes through his fingertips": "If one keeps these things in mind and looks very carefully, the fabric itself begins to speak. This is the type of clothing I wish to become."

His work can be found in all general books about Japanese fashion designers.