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On Wednesday 6th April the Semple team went to the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition which takes place until 10th July 2011 at the V&A. Yohji Yamamoto is a retrospective of the Japanese born designer’s work to date. His story is told through many mediums including, of course, the outfits he produced but also behind the scenes footage of his creative processes. These and other media platforms are used to fully explain his inspirations and why his designs have been considered so unique and often outrageous.
Born in Tokyo in 1943, Yamamoto first trained as a lawyer before deciding to turn his talents to fashion and enrolling at the Bunkafukuso Gakuin School of Fashion at the suggestion of his seamstress mother. In 1972 he set up his first ready to wear women’s label Y’s and showed his first collection in Tokyo in 1977. Following his success there he began to show his collections in Paris, creating the Yohji Yamamoto label in 1981 and his first menswear collection, Yohji Yamamoto pour homme, in 1984.
The exhibition presents this biography in a multi-media timeline which charts not only his life as a designer but the other creative influences which impacted on his work. Among the installations are videos of past shows, documentary clips including interviews with his mother and his ground breaking and highly artistic catalogues shot by renowned photographers such as Paolo Roversi and Nick Knight. These catalogues replaced the commonplace look books and tried to convey the inspiration and feel behind the collections rather than just the garments themselves; the images they contain have now become some of the most iconic in the fashion world.
Throughout his nearly 70 year career Yamamoto has become famous for his experimental designs and became internationally renowned in the early eighties. He often outraged the fashion industry by breaking norms (for example, showing his S/S collections during Paris couture week throughout the nineties), showing garments that appeared oversized and unfinished and constantly playing with ideas of gender; it is for these things, however, that he is now admired and respected. Fabric is also central to Yamamoto’s design ethos, indeed, he is often quoted as saying it ‘is everything’. He created his own textiles using traditional Japanese techniques or used unusual fabrics, such as neoprene and felt, which were not often used in the fashion industry but, thanks to his influence, have become much more common.
Throughout his nearly 70 year career Yamamoto has become famous for his experimental designs and became internationally renowned in the early eighties. He often outraged the fashion industry by breaking norms (for example, showing his S/S collections during Paris couture week throughout the nineties), showing garments that appeared oversized and unfinished and constantly playing with ideas of gender; it is for these things, however, that he is now admired and respected. Fabric is also central to Yamamoto’s design ethos, indeed, he is often quoted as saying it ‘is everything’. He created his own textiles using traditional Japanese techniques or used unusual fabrics, such as neoprene and felt, which were not often used in the fashion industry but, thanks to his influence, have become much more common.
The exhibition makes this very clear and it is cleverly evidenced through crossovers between videos of past shows and installations of the actual pieces. The curators have also been careful to show that Yamamoto was a pioneer in the fashion industry in a number of respects. He was the first designer to show a menswear collection which featured no trousers (each model wore a variation of skirt or kaftan) and was also the first to collaborate with a sportswear company, showing the Y-3 collection with Adidas in 2003, a brand which is going strong to this day. Yamamoto has also collaborated with numerous creatives and celebrities, including Takeshi Kitano, rock band Placebo and Sir Elton John. The exhibition showcases this wonderful celebration of his life and leaves every visitor keen to see what this design genius will come up with next.
Zoe Dickens
