The Legend: Yohji Yamamoto

To know Yohji Yamamoto is to know a piece of fashion history. Looking back on his life and the persistence of his avant-garde fashion designs offers a story of challenging dominant conventions, cross-cultural exchange, and a poetic dedication to the color black. We see in the enduring power of Yamamoto’s artistic endeavors a contrast to the fleeting trends of today.

Yohji Yamamoto AW15. Photography by Chloé Le Drezen. Photo available via Dazed. ©All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

In modern fashion, the color black is a staple in wardrobes around the world despite, or perhaps due to, its hold of diverse connotations. With its number of meanings, from power to mystery to sophistication, there are few fashion designers who have embraced this and captured such a range as Yohji Yamamoto. The Japanese designer is no less than a visionary who has made an enduring impact on the global fashion landscape, making clear his affection for the philosophies of rebellion via form and the color black through his work. Born in 1943 Tokyo, Yamamoto’s early life informed his worldview and ultimately his designs. Post-war Japan saw destruction and resilience in the same frame, which in turn led to the avant-garde renaissance that Yamamato came to be a part of. Having lost his father in the war, it was the subsequent time he and his mother spent in her dress-making shop that nurtured his love of fashion and a deep respect for the enduring strength of women. Yamamoto was coming of age in a time of Japanese culture in which there was an increasingly Westernized value placed on what were considered stable, corporate professions. Thus, he gave studying law a go before he returned to the shop to more seriously understand garment making and tailoring. Yamamoto’s background and defiance of an expected professional path paved the way for his artistic journey and approaches to fashion. He enrolled at Bunka Fashion College, which was the first fashion college in Japan and is still one of the most prestigious, boasting a list of alumni like Yamamoto, Kenzo Takada, and Junya Watanabe. His informal experiences with his mother, combined with the academic training, led to his establishment of his first label, Y’s, in 1972. On the brand’s site, it is described as being “in a category of its own, fusing orthodox design principles with idiosyncratic pattern making.” The label was created as the first of Yamamoto’s many departures from conventional fashion trends. Back in the 70s, Western fashion popularized pieces that were a bit more glam and form-accentuating. Yamamoto’s sweeping and oversized garments were aimed at guarding form, rather than exposing it. Western fashion and its often hyper-feminine designs held great influence; thus was born the idea of Yamamoto’s designs as rebellion. In the early 1980s, Yamamoto and his progressive approaches made their Paris debut alongside Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. Both designers having established labels in Japan, their global debut at this stage has now come to mark a turning point in Western design. At first, though, their shaking of fashion conventions was controversial and sparked confusion and scorn in the press. It is more possible now, of course, for Western fashion houses to claim the impact of Japanese design, but the acknowledgment was not always there.

Photos from some of Yohji Yamamoto’s earliest runway collections in the 80s. Photo available via WWD. ©All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

The abstract shaping, asymmetric hems, and often black, monochromatic looks bordered on the absurd to those seeing them in Paris for the first time. Criticism of the designs became political, likening the textured designs to post-war destruction in Japan. To these critics, their narrow view of fashion was limited to gender-specific ways of dressing, ways that were conscious of the body. Despite these initial responses, which were similar in the U.S., there were select groups of people who connected with these designs and their assertions of strength and independence. As is often the case with avant-garde design, it takes time for the general population to decide they’re ready. In the meantime, the world’s curiosity was beginning to take hold. From the 80s, and through today, Yamamoto has produced countless runway shows and collections that have solidified his legacy and artistic principles. Throughout the decades, the key elements of Yamamoto’s designs have shone through. His love of black, of which he is famously quoted, “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 bother you - don’t bother me.'” This reverence for the color led to a subculture in Japan, karasu-zoku (‘crow tribe’), a movement characterized by adopting all-black designer outfits. Another cornerstone that never faltered was his admiration for women and the gender ambiguity of his designs. His love for the power in women was not initially clear to the mainstream, as it seemed his designs were aimed at hiding a feminine form, rather than drawing attention to it. Yamamoto’s collections clashed with traditional women’s couture of the time, but the swapping of expectations came to be embraced as a new design philosophy, rather than one contradicting those in Western popularity. Ultimately, the mainstream indeed decided they were ready, and the same reasons for criticism in his global debut morphed into the reasons he is still so widely revered today. Since the establishment of Y’s, Yamamoto’s work has expanded into an array of labels. Y-3, his collaboration with adidas, began in 2003 and is a revolutionary partnership that merged sportswear and high fashion aesthetics. Throughout, he has his signatures, but he has never limited himself to a color, shape, cultural design practice, etc. It is thanks to this innovation that his collabs and collections continue to add to his already-secured legacy and have made him and his pieces a mainstay on the biggest runways in the world.

Yohji Yamamoto’s Pour Homme FW25 Collection. Photos available via Hypebeast. ©All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Yohji Yamamoto is now 81, a master tailor, and widely considered as the godfather of avant-garde fashion. It’s nothing short of amazing to consider how his influence has maintained throughout the decades and that his name is credited in changing fashion history. His vision for his designs never wavered: his convention-bending in form, color, and gender expression in every sense continues to bear impact on how we see and engage with fashion. To trace such an influence to an individual is remarkable and a lesson in willingness to rebel against expectations.