Yohji Yamamoto Retrospective in London

Photo Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum

By João Paulo NUNES

March 21, 2011 - London's Victoria & Albert Museum opened the first UK solo exhibition celebrating the life and work of Yohji Yamamoto, one of the world's most influential fashion designers.

This installation-based retrospective, taking place 30 years after Yamamoto's debut in Paris, features over 80 garments spanning the designer's career.

Yohji Yamamoto was born in Tokyo in 1943 and studied at Keio University (then Bunka Fashion College). By 1972 he had set up his own company, Y's Incorporated. From the start of his career Yamamoto's work was renowned for challenging the conventions of fashion. In the 1980s, the asymmetric cuts, black fabrics and seemingly unflattering curves of his work contradicted the close-fitted and lavish styles that were favoured by most Western fashion designers and buyers. Since then, he has refused traditional norms of fashion.

Yamamoto's designs have rewritten notions of beauty in fashion, and the playful androgyny of his work has created and inspired new modalities of gender identity. His collections are recognised for subverting gender stereotypes and have featured women wearing garments traditionally associated with menswear...read the full article