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Friday March 3rd at 7:00pm, at Hotel de ville de Paris... Poetic fashion from Yohji Yamamoto; somber, special, spiritual even. Made almost entirely in black with dashes of pillbox red, and cut with intricate, cascading deconstruction, this was a salutary reminder of how great fashion is often best constructed by highly experienced hands. As is his recent wont, Yohji staged the show inside the gilded magnificence Paris Hotel de Ville. A huge crowd gathered outside, defying a windy chilly evening along the Seine. Anyone who was anyone when it comes to writing about fashion or editing smart magazines took their seats front row joining Guram Gvasalia and his companion for the evening, Avril Lavigne. It was a tale of two halves. Exotic black serge wool coats and gowns classically made on one side, and the sliced, sawn, razored and dissected on the other. Elements and scraps of fabric intertwined, linked and dangled – bedraggled, yet beautiful. “The sense of isolation, of going and coming back,” explained the septuagenarian designer. A collection which won Yohji a thunderous burst of applause in a busy week for the designer, who has also just unveiled a new collection with long-term partner adidas. Yohji recently feted the 20th anniversary of his Y-3 partnership with the German active sportswear behemoth. He has now followed that up with Y-3 Atelier – a new expression centered on elevated craftsmanship. Though when a gushing critic hailed him enthusiastically saying, “Yohji, you’re a genius,” Yamamoto deadpanned with a sibylline smile: “No, I am not. Not anymore.“ By Godfrey Deeney for Fashion Network Produced by Yohji Yamamoto team Lighting by Lightlab Hair by Eugene Souleiman Make-up by Ana Takahashi Music by Jiro Amimoto
