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

[pickpackpockpuck]

http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/3728/Paris_Menswear_SS15_Top_Five_Beauty_Moments

jacket construction looks interesting. looks like there's a double lapel: an interior piece that you can button separately from the exterior, like the soloist cowboy shirt. fabric looks amazing

 

[davidlee388]

I have on good authority the theme of YYPH SS15 collection is called Culture Mix. Will post some pics of our trip in Paris soon. :tounge:

 

[dantebykiko]

the starting point for the collection is "tokyo story" by ozu. missing and forgetting are two key words. yohji keeps trying to forget his status in the industry, also the garments have missing elements. they made the jackets and yohji started slashing the shoulders, the backs etc. some of them are patched up with fabric, some of them just left as they are.

 

[davidlee388]

PARIS, JUNE 2014.

Wonderful annual trip as always given the weather and the important event we were attending.

Places, cuisines and people

The ubiquitous YY x Paris Metro shot lol. SS10, SS12, SS07


Centre Pompidou. As above + SS14 Wrinkle Blazer


Musee du Louvre


Outside L'atelier dJR, Rue Montalambert


Best cafe creme at Cafe Constant. Great food in Paris, from street snacks to fine cuisine

Simple baguette sandwich, delicious.

French onion soup, beef tartare.

Black cod - L'atelier de Joel Robuchon

Pistachio cake, sabayon, herb sorbet - Restaurant Frenchie

And of course pastries!

Shiva taking a break.

Great people we met:-

2 super stylish and adorable Yohji/Limi fans we finally met up during the event we attended. One of them has a close link to the Master


Raphael & Chantal @YY Cambon. Thank you for all the help and hospitality. SS10, SS04, SS12

Pulling faces with Laurent @Y's Louvre
YYPH AW14 first encounter
Only tried on a few of what they had delivered in the first shipment but the signs are very promising.


SS10, SS10, SS14, AT Shiva

Like these very much. Look 19 Skull Knit + Look 14 Chained Beast Wide Cropped Pants. The pants are simply sensational, so comfortable, dry hand printed wool gabardine, trick buttons at the hems to widen them even more. If you like hakamas as much as I do, these are a must get, the only problem is the price...



Look 13 Asymmetrical Knit - more a knit coat, thick laine wool, unequal length, double left panels to reveal the patterned inner layer. Awesome piece.

Boiled wool stand collar short coat, this is black, navy also available

Look 3 Skull Floral Print Coat - wool, DB closure + waist belt. #dramatic

Wool gabardine drop crotch pants. Relatively slim cut with deep overlapping back frayed edge panels to a pronounced dropped crotch. The panels are NOT closed though!

YYPH SS15 Runway Presentation
You guys already saw the pictures, watched the video by now and the general consensus is it's a stellar show by the Master. Some runway presentations can appear outlandish, bold, opinion dividing ( e.g. AW`14 ) at first, then after further, careful assessment they start to grow on you. This one however just felt " right " on first encounter and time only enhances that feeling. The use of subtle colours/patterned fabrics and the silhouettes are just amazing. So many wearable runways pieces, not just as separates but as whole set-ups as well. They were much better seen in motion of course. Particularly fond of the Chinese inspired pieces, the overdyed, de-colourized suits like from SS06, the half blazers, the lapel-less, offset buttoned suits, the flowing coats, the denim section, the typically humourous missing cat/dog/Yohji postered suits at the end. So many to lust after and practically little to complain about. One of the best shows. And you never know, the YYPH Bandana may catch on





Look 1, the start.


Phenomenal cuts and patterns. The Shah will be pleased


The coat fabric...flows majestically, and the half jacket




THE suit to buy

My favourites as well.



The fabric in motion, need I say more.


Twins pair number one.

Denim!



Missing cat, typical Yohji

Twins pair number two


Missing Yohji Blazer! On the wish list too.

Mr YY, we salute you too

After the show....

The stalking took place opposite 155 rue Saint-Martin. I was hoping he would come out eventually...again.



The handshake. He may have said " I remember you from last year but you seem to have shrunk a little " to which I may have replied without looking at his Redwings " You are Mount Fuji Yohji-san "


Great end to a great show.

So there you go. Goodbye Paris, look forward to 2015

 

[colin_]

Nice stuff. What are the glasses?

 

[Parker]

wow! looks like a great time David.

totally agree this collection is both immediately likeable and keeps getting better with more views.
Twins are back. Suits are back. Cats are lost. I'm totally going to get a Yohji bandana headscarf.

 

[the shah]

Quite an adventure , that pistachio desert looks incredible too lol

I like it all, def hoping for bandana too like Monsieur Parker

 

[StevenE]

I love that skull knit. Depending on how broke i am come the sale it's the once piece i'd quite like to pick up.

When i looked it in store the threads seemed reasonably tight, which I hope is a good sign in terms of longevity - I've got two yohji knits, both mostly alpaca i think, one of which is knitted very finely and seems more or less indestructible (not the original owner, couple years of very heavy use) - the other was that beige one from a few years back with a black pelvis / leg bone image on it (there was another variant with the colours reversed). Despite being stored well and probably having been worn less than 7 times in total it's got a couple of 20p-sized holes in where the wool's just unthreaded - I don't really know how to repair it or how many other holes it'd seemingly spontaneously develop either, which is a shame because I love his knits but it would give me some pause before buying again. Oh man i love that jumper.

 

[davidlee388]

Maybe it's made in China? Quite a few of the aw11 runway knits were made in China and others from the same collection were made in Japan, pretty random and personally I don't get the logic of that. Pretty sure someone's gonna come on and beat me down with the " MIC same as MIJ quality wise claim " but I will personally shy away if possible of buying those, just my personal view.

 

[StevenE]

Funnily enough I just checked the labels and the knit that's unthreading is indeed Chinese, while the seemingly indestructible knit (not sure of the season but quite old I think) was made in Japan. I wouldn't have thought to check actually so thanks for the tip. I probably would be less inclined to buy a Chinese knit in the future, so I'll check the label of the Skull knit next time I pass the store.

I should probably stress that the knit is literally the only single item I've bought from YYPH barring shoes that's proven somewhat delicate so I wasn't having a more general moan about the brand, even the socks I bought in 2011 are still going strong, but yeah it is slightly galling when an item (especially one that looked so good and I'd wear all the time if i could) falls apart 10x quicker than something from primark.

 

[davidlee388]

@Steven the skull knit is made in Japan. In fact every AW14 piece I posted above is. It's one of the first things I checked lol.

 

[dantebykiko]

some of the knits are made in china because the japanese factory have limits in production. they use the best chinese factories to complete their runs of production. the yarns and the machines are the same. visvim uses chinese factories too. made in china can be very expensive.

 

[TroubIe]

I arrived in Tokyo last night, and visited the Aoyama store today, the last day of SS14.

I cannot begin to express in words how amazed I am.

The store interior itself is not very breathtaking compared to retail spaces of other brands eg. Comme des Garcons, Rick Owens, but has a "mature", "understanding", calm atmosphere. Might sound weird but it was truly a warm, welcoming environment.

The shop staff - This is one of the most inspiring things about Japan. Every designer's store I enter, the shop staff are all such great representatives of the brand. The shop staff were all wearing YYPH and I have never ever seen people look that amazing before. Their style was truly remarkable, a very relaxed but creative, unpredictable, surprising way of putting things together, mixed in with their individual flavor.

They had reissued some of the pants from SS13 - the Look 7 Hakamas in Cotton and Rayon, the Adjustable Balloon pants in Cotton and Rayon, and a different type of Hakamas with pockets on the outside in Rayon.

I tried on and fell in love with the Balloon Pants, they were 46000 JPY while the cotton was 42000 JPY. Decided to get them but did not bring my passport for the foreigner tax discount, so I had it held for tomorrow, when the FW14 collection is released.

I regret that I did not pick up some basic conversational Japanese before I came on my trip, the staff in Japan all seem very passionate about their respective brands and designers, and the staff member helping me out was giving me styling tips for the pants which was very pleasant.

Going back tomorrow for FW14, really excited and will report back!

 

[TroubIe]

Back from the Aoyama store.

All the sales staff were head to toe in brand new FW14 outfits, and dear lord they looked incredible, and styled the patterned pieces so well. I didn't think a full - pattered outfit could look that good and expected them to mix one patterned piece with simpler, black pieces, but they surprisingly looked incredible.

The first delivery only included about 4 racks, with around 20 - 25 pieces in total not including the accessories and shoes. Was interested in the beast print pants which ran at around 120000 JPY while the plain black version was around 62000 JPY. I already bought the balloon pants which can be adjusted with drawstrings for a similar silhouette, so I passed on those - they were way too expensive for me anyways. Definitely a decent amount of good pieces that you couldn't really see on the runway because they were hidden under heavy layers, and alot of good non - patterned versions of pieces as well. None of them interested me enough for me to want to try them on, though. Will go back every once in a while to see if they have any new stock, but I am only here for another 3 weeks. Hopefully they will, or if they don't hopefully the other 2 Yohji stores in Tokyo (Shinjuku Marui Men's / Isetan Men's) will have different stock.

Ozawa, the sales staff who helped me out yesterday, told me that the leather Yasuto Sasada collaboration pieces are all hand painted individually, with every piece being made to order for around $40000 (I think he might have meant that the full outfit I was looking at ran around that much). “So order, please” he joked afterwards, and we all had a good laugh. Still really awkward with my Japanese but managed to thank the staff before I headed up to the main floor where the Women’s collection was. By this time I don’t think I need to even bother with talking about how sales staff look because they all look so good that I am actually so touched and awestruck in every store. There were a few older female customers in Yohji trying things on, who also looked great. Women's had alot more basics than duffle coats and what we saw on the runway, and the duffle coats were scaled down and were much smaller and fit for use in daily life.

The second hand stores here are crazy too and there are just so many of them - it is so fun treasure hunting for pieces, you never know what you are going to find. Lots and lots of Comme des Garcons in every store as I guess this is one of Japan's top brands - decent amount of Yohji in every store as well.

Will report back if I see any interesting things at any of the other Yohji stores!

In the meantime here is a photo of me in my reissued SS13 pants, having some fun copying Vivian Westwood when she walked for YYPH

 

[myname]

Hopefully they will, or if they don't hopefully the other 2 Yohji stores in Tokyo (Shinjuku Marui Men's / Isetan Men's) will have different stock.

Ozawa, the sales staff who helped me out yesterday, told me that the leather Yasuto Sasada collaboration pieces are all hand painted individually, with every piece being made to order for around $40000 (I think he might have meant that the full outfit I was looking at ran around that much).

Try one of the Seibu stores (in Shibuya and Ikebukuro), or Hankyu Men's & Matsuya Ginza (both in Ginza), for other stock. You could just ask the staff at one of those shops if you are looking for something in particular... but there is usually exclusive items for every store, so it's always fun to hunt. Good luck!

And just to confirm - it actually is $40,000 just for the jacket.