Yohji, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Looser Fit (Yohji Yamamoto Thread) - Page 212

Sigh. I wonder why so many stores do this. Keep old season Y's and Pour Homme with full prices. One would think that most people that would bother to pick up Yohji would know they were being price gouged. Maybe SF and SZ are making me think wrongly though, heh.

Also, I just noticed that a lot of online stores stocking Yohji don't seem to be picking up a lot of pieces in size 4 any more stopping at just 2 & 3 for the most part. Making it very depressing browsing through their stock for me, lol. Looks like they feel size 3 should be good enough for us 6' + people.

Man, I am probably going to spend way too much on SS13. Those pants in the first look you posted must be in my wardrobe! Actually the whole look to be honest. Really liked the way the entire outfit looked in motion. Also looking at a pair of the printed pants and the blazers with the tails. Beautiful.

Yeah I believe Valter also said he handled some of the pieces backstage and was not impressed either. Will wait and see anyway. The only downside so far for SS13 for me is that there was not a lot of wool gab shown on the runway (if any?) but I trust there will be some available in-store. The cut of those pants is definitely something I want though, whether they handled well or not we all know that the proof is in the wearing sometimes


Unfortunately, the fashion system is what it is. It would be great if he could make his clothing for much cheaper and still keep in business, but I am not sure it is financially feasible. Yohji uses manufacturers, craftspeople and gets fabrics from some of the best places one can get these sorts of things and the cost of doing business at his level almost necessitates the sort of pricing that we are seeing here. This is not to say of course that his clothing could not be cheaper - I am sure it is possible - but the fact that production costs what it does and all his overheads are what they are, I am pretty sure he is not just charging high prices for the sake of charging them. If he was making clothing in some other places in the world outside of the fashion industry's structure as it were I am sure he could bring his prices down, but he might also not be able to do the things he wants to in order to realise his own vision with regards to the garments themselves. Also remember that Yohji goes out of his way to support Japanese craftspeople and keep them in business. Every time you buy a Yohji item some of that money goes into helping some mom & pop business that may have even been in existence for multiple generations and might be dying out so that's a lot of good as well.

In Nigeria for example, labour is relatively cheap, but we also don't have access to the manufacturing or fabric development avenues that Yohji would need in order to continue to expand on his work. Even designers like Geoffrey B Smalls who is running a very ethical business structure from what I have read on Stylezeitgeist still sells his clothing for pretty high prices. The best one can do is just don't support businesses that use unethical business practices and possibly also buy less even if you buy expensive.

Anyway, I don't believe that if you can afford to spend money on luxuries for yourself or others that you shouldn't just because somewhere in the world there are people suffering. One can help the world in other ways that do not involve donating money to charities or what have you. You are in medical school training to be a doctor for example. If you wore Yohji while helping to treat the sick in some developing nation somewhere for free I am sure the people you treat would not begrudge your wearing the same $2000 wool gabardine jacket for the 2 weeks you were helping them out (hell they wouldn't even know so it's not as if you would be rubbing how much it cost in their face) and you get the satisfaction of knowing that you are keeping one of the great fashion designers of our time in business.

I almost went in for medicine myself for the same reasons (ended up doing biotechnology because I thought I could still help this way without spending so long in uni) Ben.

Anyway, don't let feelings of guilt stop you from enjoying yourself. You need to be happy and content before you can impart the same feelings to others and if part of that involves enjoying some luxury hobby then so be it. The important thing is to curb excess and do "good works".

Tolstoy said "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." and I believe this is a fundamental problem with the way we go about things in the world. If you are a good person and work on improving yourself, I think you will do good instinctively and have a positive influence on everyone around you whether you are rich or poor.

Donating money is one thing, but it is easily mismanaged and to be honest is an easy way out to make one feel like they have done their bit for those less privileged than themselves. I think volunteering like Parker said (or even donating some of your used Yohji to some homeless people!) probably has more of an effect and you can see the results with your own eyes.


Heh, was just noticing the very same thing. I do have some heavier cotton pieces that look like they will last ages (like the SS00 suit I picked up from wire. Still in excellent condition), but I guess if you go for light cotton there's only so much that can be done to make them durable. I do like the holes developing and so on though. That slow disintegration process is definitely great if viewed in the right light I guess (does depend on the piece though) - wabi-sabi ftw