Yamamoto is having a retrospective exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in UK. The exhibit is showcasing the avant-garde designer over 80 women’s and menswear most representative work. This exhibition explores Yamamoto’s work, his deep interest in textiles which is at the heart of his approach to design.
'Fabric is everything. Often I tell my pattern makers, "Just listen to the material. What is it going to say? Just wait. Probably the material will tell you something."'
- Yohji Yamamoto
The importance of the fabric is tangible in every Yamamoto piece. From deciding the exact balance between the warp and the weft of the fabric and dyeing it the ideal hue to establishing the number of washings required to achieve the perfect balance between new and old, every fabric Yamamoto uses is specially created for him in Japan.
Yamamoto became internationally renowned in the early eighties for challenging traditional notions of fashion by designing garments that seemed oversized, unfinished, played with ideas of gender or fabrics not normally used in fashionable attire such as felt or neoprene. Other works revealed Yamamoto's unusual pattern cutting, knowledge of fashion history and sense of humour. His work is characterized by a frequent and skilful use of black, a colour which he describes as 'modest and arrogant at the same time'.
This exhibition is also the first to include his menswear, first launched in Paris in 1984. A multimedia timeline, meanwhile, reveals his wider creative output. Noticeably, the selection of clothes here are very colorful, despite the impression that Yohji clothes are all black. Pieces are effectively and carefully curated not chronologically to emphasize that Mr. Yamamoto’s designs are timeless.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
'Fabric is everything. Often I tell my pattern makers, "Just listen to the material. What is it going to say? Just wait. Probably the material will tell you something."'
- Yohji Yamamoto
The importance of the fabric is tangible in every Yamamoto piece. From deciding the exact balance between the warp and the weft of the fabric and dyeing it the ideal hue to establishing the number of washings required to achieve the perfect balance between new and old, every fabric Yamamoto uses is specially created for him in Japan.
Yamamoto became internationally renowned in the early eighties for challenging traditional notions of fashion by designing garments that seemed oversized, unfinished, played with ideas of gender or fabrics not normally used in fashionable attire such as felt or neoprene. Other works revealed Yamamoto's unusual pattern cutting, knowledge of fashion history and sense of humour. His work is characterized by a frequent and skilful use of black, a colour which he describes as 'modest and arrogant at the same time'.
This exhibition is also the first to include his menswear, first launched in Paris in 1984. A multimedia timeline, meanwhile, reveals his wider creative output. Noticeably, the selection of clothes here are very colorful, despite the impression that Yohji clothes are all black. Pieces are effectively and carefully curated not chronologically to emphasize that Mr. Yamamoto’s designs are timeless.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
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