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PARIS, France — Due to the terrible traffic conditions in Paris, this reviewer reached the Yohji Yamamoto show right when it was starting. Viewing it standing, from the photographers' stall, made the whole experience feel new.
At Yamamoto, it's invariably a case of the same but different. The designer is in no rush to reinvent the wheel at every turn, nor does he need to. The show was pure, undiluted Yohji. There was black, of course, and lots of it, and there was volume and deconstruction. The best blazers and coats came equipped with an array of dangling buttoned straps which gave movement to the silhouette. (Major trend alert here: this season it's all about the dangling.)
Apart from the familiar, however, there was also something new. Shots of vitaminic brights at one point, and painterly prints splashed across jackets, trousers and shirts throughout. The printed garments set the slightly melancholic, softly masculine tone of the whole endeavor. Paired with the flowing lines, they gave the Yamamoto men a further poetic patina that was a joy to behold.
