Yohji Yamamoto Fall 2019 RTW
Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto’s designs are notorious for the fuck you’s that they present to the fashion establishment. His avant-garde design aesthetics have rendered him a visionary in the fashion world. He is especially skilled in the art of engineering of fabrics. This season, the Paris-based designer delved further into the art of abstraction by producing an all-black collection of clothes in which he demonstrated his masterful draping techniques. His spirit, subversive of tradition and refinement carries a certain modesty and sensuality in only the way a true creative imagination could ever achieve. His oversized silhouettes fuse with relaxed drapery made of the most quality, high end textures and fabrics. At the same time mysterious and elegant, the Yamamato has opted for black in his clothes, viewing it as a lazy but simple color that makes a statement of aggression and fragility.
In the sort of star-studded luxury that only couture can resemble, Yamamoto chose to create an art out of the idea of “the unfinished;” “the incomplete.” Thus, viewers were transported to a period before mass production and at-your-fingertips glamour; to a time before “ready to wear;” to a time of “make-it-yourself.”
The collection was a beautiful, gothic flourish of forgotten threads pieced onto unfinished hems, chalky fingerprinted paintings on garments, loose and quick stitching, and clawed sleeves. An ensemble of shapes, the designer put out some of his best garments this season, including slim-fitting trench coats of ruffled sleeves, a long gown with buttons lining from neck to hem, a white and black contrasting set with childish paintings strewn across, a number of draped pieces stitch in rag doll white string, as well as a Camelot-inspired black robe offering an odd nod to eighteenth century knights and damsels in destress.