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Yohji Yamamoto -- Master Tailoring but Minimally Inspiring
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
PARIS, Jul 4, 2002/ FWD/ --- If the mark of a great designer is tailoring, then Yohji
Yamamoto confirmed his place in the Pantheon Saturday in Paris, albeit in a men’s catwalk
show that was restrained and even pedestrian in its presentation.
The show marked the opening of a busy ten days for Yamamoto, who, somewhat ironically,
will next Sunday kick off the women’s haute couture season by presenting his signature
women’s collection in the Palais Garnier Opera.
His men’s show this weekend captured all that was best in Yohji’s oeuvre - inventive cutting,
masterly detailing, slick shirtings and that sense of whimsy that always characterizes a
Yamamoto show.
For openers, he experimented with a dozen suits in his signature navy blue and gray flannel
that came with hugely splayed collars, perforated plastic lapels and novel volumes.
Yohji has always had treated editors he respects well, and he paid Number Homme
editor-in-chief Serge Girardi, who modeled in the show, a great compliment by sending him
out in several of his best looks, in particular a superb redingote whose collar almost
reached the journalist’s belly button.
Also hitting the boards was fellow designer Pierre Hardy, the brains behind the great shoes
at Hermes, who appeared in a cool ecru cotton suit like a latter day Edwardian cricketer.
Yohji’s shirts had hints of Three Men in a Boat and were uniformly excellent, composed of
contrasting patchwork pinstripes with exaggerated rounded collars.
Yet, the show also marked a brutal step away for the designer, whose recent shows have
been crammed full of his brilliant interpretations of Adidas sneakers.
This season, the shoes were nearly all brogues with never a basket in sight.
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