Friday 8 June 2012

Poetry in clothes.

Giorgio Armani once described the work of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto as "poetic". Gwen Stefani names him explicitly in her song, Harajuku Girls;

"Super lovers, tell me where you got yours 
(At the super lovers store) 
Yohji Yamamoto 
I'm hanging with the locals"

Those are two pretty amazing references in my book but, by no means, are these Yamamoto's only admirers. And, frankly, the clothes speak for themselves. While I can't say that I would wear every single piece of his A/W 2012 collection, I admire every piece and would gladly accept most of them into my wardrobe! Which is more than I can say even for some of my favourite of designers. That's the thing about collections, not every piece is your cup of tea but the general aesthetic or feeling of a designer is what endears them to you. 

I love the ambiguity of his work, that you never know what to expect. It moves from feminine to masculine, from demure to sexy and the references and influences are many yet they are all clearly from the same collection, same hand. These clothes are impeccably made and never too much but always visually stimulating. You are always surprised by what next appears on the runway. 

His colour schemes usually revolve around dark colours with splashes of vampy reds and purples which happen to be the colours I often live in - must be fate - and this season, some khakis and a wonderful  jumper-dress-thing in a pink that I am very fond of. I love that there are goth and alternative influences all over the place but appreciate how grown-up and haute they are. Yamamoto takes that undercurrent of goth influence in Japanese fashion and makes it more adult, more wearable and infinitely more interesting and, importantly, never loses that sense of poetry that Armani pointed out to us. 


















Hey, Santa? I wouldn't mind finding all this under my tree come Christmas. It's probably gonna be another cold one and what better to wrap up in?

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