BEAUTY: Clothing--Yohji Yamamoto

A Yohji Yamamoto collection is always something to see...the highly regarded and highly decorated designer is one of those elevated, iconic artists who are singular. While I love when a designer takes inspiration, or inspirations from some wild, fascinating, interesting source, Yamamoto exists in a realm of his own mythology, much like Rick Owens. Yamamoto has his own sartorial vernacular and his own internal logic. His creations--Asian and Western elements combined into a future/retro (sometimes ecclesiastical) sensibility, layered and slouchy Bohemian-chic garments, flowing asymmetrical cuts, all awash with an insouciant, rippling sense of Romanticism worthy of any French Symbolist poet--are timeless, since they are not necessarily tethered to anything outside of their orbit.

His Fall Winter '26-'27 collection at Paris Fashion Week portrayed all of that but there was indeed a timely element in his mind as well. Yamamoto said at the show, "Everything was inspired by the army and working in dirty conditions... Army outfits and fighting outfits are very important for safety." We know that Yamamoto is a peace-loving man so this was an interesting reference. It might be the state of the world now that made him go down that road of thinking: it seems there is military action around most of the world now. But how this manifested itself was rather cryptic. The first several looks incorporated some kind of Yamamoto camouflage before veering off into a short section of eveningwear with historical silhouettes. Antique regimental coats sport many buttons preceded a very un-Yamamoto jumpsuit in a colors not usually found in one of his collections. Finally, a group of coats came out together, their bodies made up of several layers of fabric but then aged and roughed and peeled away like layers and layers of wallpaper on the wall of a storied home.

https://theshopyohjiyamamoto.com/