the new york times ∙ apr 20 1982

description

Some of the earliest coverage of Yohji in western media, 10 years after the launch of Y's. The A/W '82 collection was re-shown in New York (a month after Paris) with the help of legendary NYC retailer Charivari, who were the first to carry the Yohji Yamamoto label in North America.

Also shown are portraits of Yohji in New York after the show.

notes

published by the new york times
photo ∙ bill cunningham, womenswear daily
writing ∙ john duka

A New Look From Japan

More than 700 people attended the showing last Thursday night of the new fall collection of Yohji Yamamoto, a relatively unknown Japanese designer who received enthusiastic reviews for his collection in Paris recently.

But three minutes into the show, one thing was clear: The word of mouth on this 37-year-old design talent was right on target, for Mr. Yamamoto appears to have his finger on a strong, and modern, design pulse. In fact, for many of the American designers, press, retailers and ardent fashion followers who showed up at the 42nd Division Armory on 14th Street, the show was something of a revelation.

Dazzling Personal Vision

Mr. Yamamoto has combined some of the oldest and newest fashion ideas into a dazzling personal vision of the contemporary woman. And what she looks like is a distillation of the street fashions that began to pour westward from London in 1976 mixed with a few shapes derived from ancient Japan.

Whatever the inspiration, the clothes exhibited a dynamic tension evenly distributed between volume, cut and fabric. They simply do not follow the shape of the body in any conventional manner. Whereas most clothes accentuate a natural verticality, Mr. Yamamoto's seem almost horizontal.

First out on the runway were the voluminous black cutaways worn over black shirts and wide, black cropped pants with enormous cuffs. Essentially cleaned-up versions of the recent English pirate fashions, they took on an added element of mixed metaphor when topped with traditional Japanese fishing hats with long, narrow brims. These were followed by tie-dyed, distressed leather coats with attached, stiff fabric skirts. But even their electric colors could not conceal a design cleverly based on the silhouette of oriental ceremonial robes.

Japanese Modern

After these initial forays into historicism, however, Mr. Yamamoto showed what Japanese modern is all about with oversized coral herringbone blazers paired with skinny, blue, tie-dyed leather pants; floor-length, wool coatdresses with fitted waists and circle skirts; acrylic fur coats shaped like monolithic trapezoids, and finally, flyaway, calf-length yellow raincoats that had models spinning until the music swelled, the audience applauded, and the fuses in the armory blew forcing Mr. Yamamoto to meet his public in darkness.

''It was,'' said Dawn Mello, vice president of Bergdorf Goodman, ''a new expression in movement.'' If the movement was new, it was aided by using flat footwear - especially the new lace-up ankle boot.