The career and success of a man who has marked the history of fashion: Yohji Yamamoto , together with Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo , questioned the canons of the structure of the suit, inviting fashion to reflect on new possible silhouettes

"Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don't disturb you and you don't have to distrub me" declared the Japanese deseigner Yohji Yamamoto about his love for black.
YOHJI YAMAMOTO'S CAREER
After completing his university law studies in 1966, Yamamoto enters the fashion design course at the famous Bunkafukuso Gakuin, the most important fashion institute in Tokyo. Despite his manual and artisanal skills, he began his career as an anonymous designer around 1970. In 1977 he presented his first collection under the Y's label, which in the future was kept as the second line of the house. Together with Rei Kawakubo , she designed her first high fashion women's pr&ecirc;t-&agrave;-porter collection in 1981, presenting it in Paris for the first time, a record also in welcoming an Asian designer to euorpa. Over the next two years, Kawakubo and Yamamoto pioneered the idea of deconstructed fashion. Their revolutionary aesthetic shocked the world with clothes that looked unfinished, tattered and haphazardly put together. Yamamoto's loose, flowing silhouettes and ubiquitous use of black further defined his groundbreaking work, which became the favorite look of the 1980s urban aesthetic. In 1984 Yohji launched the men's line, following the same stylistic guidelines as the woman.
THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE YAMAMOTO STYLE
Gender ambiguity, the importance of black and the aesthetics of deconstruction. Yamamoto's declared love and respect for women was not obvious to many, because her clothes were often devoid of Western-style gender markers. He expressed an aversion to overtly sexualized women and often dressed them in patterns inspired by menswear. Such role-playing between the sexes has long been a part of Japanese culture and a persistent theme among artists and performers for centuries. The fact that Yamamoto has on more than one occasion chosen women as models for his men's fashion shows was another small piece of the puzzle of going against defined sexual identities.
Even when his later work embraced the overwhelming romanticism of postwar Parisian haute couture, Yamamoto's historical recontextualizations contrasted sharply with the work of other leading designers. Deliberately absent from her shows were the requirements of the contemporary high fashion women's wardrobe: high heels, raised hems, plunging necklines and sheer fabrics. These features could be the reason that Yamamoto's tailored dark suits and white shirts for both men and women were some of its most enduring and compelling products. Worn by Western men of all classes for two centuries, the dark colored suit and white shirt have the combined ability to convey both sexuality and power through conformity. This blend of erotic allure and strength was a perfect model for Yamamoto to express his postwar version of male and female sexuality.

Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2022

Yohji Yamamoto Fall-Winter 2020

Yohji Yamamoto Pre Fall-Winter 2020

Yohji Yamamoto Fall-Winter 2018

Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2020

Yohji Yamamoto Fall-Winter 2017

No color in the fashion palette has been as important in Yohji Yamamoto's work as black. This first relentless black-on-black aesthetic earned its devotees the nickname of karasuzoku, or members of the raven tribe. Black has some associations in Western history that have been worked out through a kaleidoscope of modernist or postmodernist self-conscious theories and hypotheses. As a result of historical re-contextualization, black acquired a number of meanings in the last quarter of the twentieth century, such as poverty and devastation for some fashion critics, and sobriety, intellectualism, elegance, self-control and nobility in dressing for others.
The aesthetic attributes of traditional Japan and contemporary culture, as well as the role black plays in fashion, can be seen in the association of color with poverty. For some, black is an illusion, or perhaps an allusion to rusticity, simplicity and self-control. In Japan, black dyes can connote rural origin as well as noble warrior status. An important link between black and the symbolic associations of old Europe, traditional Japan and the modern urban landscape can also be derived from the couture ateliers. Yamamoto, like Crist&oacute;bal Balenciaga , often created day dresses, dresses, ball gowns and coats devoid of any adornment. Charcoal gray, navy blue, and of course black wool were often modeled and manipulated into pure sculptural forms that displayed both wonderful modeling and tailoring techniques, as well as a love of dramatic forms.
ALL YAMAMOTO LINES
Y's, Yohji Yamamoto, Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme and Costume D'Homme, Y's for men SHIRTS, Red Label and Black Label, Gothic Yohji Yamamoto Homme, Haute Couture are some of the many labels created over the years. Yamamoto's experimentation, his dark romanticism, punk and Victorian, imbued with Asian cultural references such as classic Japanese anime, appeared in various collections of the Pour Homme line.
Together with adidas was born Y-3 , created in 2003 in collaboration with the sports giant and co-directed with &nbsp; Nic Galway &nbsp; who later also collaborated with Kanye West on the design of the Yeezy. The collaboration was &nbsp; revolutionary : the first time in which a high fashion designer designed a sportswear line together with a brand-symbol of the industry, balancing &nbsp; two aesthetic codes so distant from each other . Completely different from the 90's stret and skate phenomenon, Yohji's clean lines met the design and functionality of the three-stripe brand. The label anticipated future adidas collabs with Raf Simons and Rick Owens as much as the one between Jun Takahashi and Nike.
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">&ldquo;Fashion had become boring. I had gone too far beyond the world of the street. [&hellip;] At the time, New York businessmen had started wearing sneakers along with their suits. It was strange but also incredibly fascinating, a hybrid."

Yohji Yamamoto's career and success

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