Yohji Yamamoto Restrospective at the V&A

[gius]

So I'm not sure if Mulletproof is going to post this today, but she told me about it --Perhaps I'll just post it for her lol


YOHJI YAMAMOTO AT THE V&A
From 12 March - 10 July 2011, the V&A will present a retrospective of the work of visionary Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Conceived as a site-specific installation with its core in Gallery 38 and small interventions throughout the V&A, Yamamoto’s menswear collections will be included in the display of his work for the first time. Each space will take its own meaning within the narrative of the exhibition which explores Yohji Yamamoto’s design world.
Follow exhibition curator, Ligaya Salazar, as she documents the evolution of the exhibition and offers an insight into the research, design and installation process.

This is the blog to follow

Photograph by Koichi Inakoshi

To celebrate and mark the 30th anniversary of Yohji Yamamoto’s arrival on the Parisian fashion circuit, the V&A will stage a retrospective of his work which opens on the 12 March 2011. This blog will offer an insight into the curation and preparation of this exhibition. Over the next 6 months, we will share key moments from the different layers of work that will make this exhibition happen.
Of course, we have not just started to work on this exhibition so there is a fair bit to catch up on. Over the next weeks, I will be posting episodes of the story so far - from the moment the exhibition was first discussed, why the V&A is staging an exhibition on Yohji Yamamoto to the exhibition design concepts and object selection which are currently in discussion. Almost two years work-in-progress!
Why? Who? How?

When discussions first started about potentially embarking on an exhibition project on Yohji Yamamoto, the first consideration had to be why him? To us the question was easily answered: described as a ‘designer’s designer’, ‘a Poet of Black’ and the ‘King of Cool’, Yohji Yamamoto’s challenging designs have questioned the need to reveal and exaggerate the female form. Instead they presented the possibilities of folding, draping and manipulating textile and established black as a colour to wear at any occasion. Yohji Yamamoto first showed in Paris in 1981, after 9 years of successfully running his clothing range Y’s solely in Japan. Over the last three decades he has continued to advance his design language through his main line as well as through his various collaborations (in film, photography and performance as well as with sportswear giant adidas). It made sense to explore the possibilities that such a extensive body of work would offer to an exhibition here at the V&A.
Then there was his illustrious history of showing his work in previous exhibitions. Most interestingly through the exhibition triptych that was staged in 2005 and 2006 at the Galeria d’Arte Moderna of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy; the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, France and MoMu in Antwerp, Belgium respectively. In this series of exhibitions, Yohji Yamamoto and the curators explored the process of inspiration, design and consumption in beautiful and imaginative ways.
So what would make the exhibition at the V&A different?

In many ways, this exhibition will continue in the spirit of the Triptych. It is conceived as a site-specific installation rather than a chronological or even thematic retrospective look at Yamamoto’s work. In contrast to the previous exhibitions, this show will have a central core in one of the exhibition spaces and spread out in carefully chosen permanent collections galleries of the V&A. Each space will take its own meaning within the subtle narrative of the exhibition which explores the many corners of Yohji Yamamoto’s design world. For the first time and as a nod to London’s own sartorial history, Yamamoto’s menswear collections will be presented.

 

[gius]

I'll post this entry, in case they delete it in the future <_< Very rare treasure..

Research trip: Kyoto - yuzen dyeing

At Chiso Kimono makers
Research trip to Kyoto and Tokyo


As part of my research for both the exhibition itself and the accompanying book , I endeavoured on my first trip to Japan in February of this year. The plan was to visit Kyoto to see some of the craftspeople that contribute to the making of Yohji Yamamoto’s incredible garments. The second stop would be Tokyo, or rather Shinagawa, where I would visit the headquarters and, rather nerve-wreckingly, have to interview Mr. Yohji Yamamoto for the publication.
First stop Kyoto, home of small craft industries in particular textiles and ceramics. The Kyo-yuzen dyeing technique originated here in the 1700s and it was the making of this particular kind of Kimono I was about to witness. From the first visit to Chiso in Kyoto (one of the most eminent of Kimono-making companies established in 1555 and also a close collaborator of Yohji Yamamoto) until completed Kimono can take up to three months and hundreds of man-hours designing, dyeing and making it .

Ao-bana utushi – tracing with traditional ink that disappears in the wash


We meet a room full of designers who adapt historical kimono patterns or create new ones depending on the client’s wishes. One very humble man was introduced to me as he has over the last decade designed the embroidery and patterns for the only made-to-measure collection Yohji Yamamoto has done for no-one less than Sir Elton John and his Las Vegas Red Piano stage show! We get taken through all the steps of the long process of creating a Yuzen kimono and at the end see how the first version of the finished item is scrutinised by at least half a dozen Chiso managers.

Ao-bana utushi – tracing with traditional ink that disappears in the wash

Dyed half of a full length kimono

Dyeing vat that emulates the movement of water of the Kamo river that runs through Kyoto where this used to be done

Iro-sashi – painting the design

Iro-sashi paint colours

Gold-leafing – I tried my hands on this one, can’t say I am too talented
After this we go to visit a small-scale embroiderer who works on Chiso’s products details and get a glimpse of the embroidery done for Sir Elton John.

vam.ac.uk /

 

[girlalamode]

WOAH, I am so excited about the V&A Retrospective!

 

[MulletProof]

Thank you, gius .. I was actually hinting you for a thread.
I really hope I can see this.. looks like it's going to be quite a highlight in next year's 'fashion calendar'.. and I love how they're documenting all of his work so far..

 

[LoraV]

Oh wow the photos are so amazing!!! Looking foward to see it!!!

 

[MUXU]

ooh la la
i will be at the v&a in march for sure

 

[MulletProof]

FEELING THE FLOW OF YAMAMOTO
By Suzy Menkes
March 14, 2011
nytimes.com


LONDON — Yohji Yamamoto is a man of many design facets — but few words. So when he spoke at the opening of his retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum last week, his main message was: “Happy birthday to my mother.”

A design by Yohji Yamamoto at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London


This was, of course, before the earthquake and tsunami devastated his country. Fumi Yamamoto, the designer’s mother, had come from Japan and was in London in person and on film in the multimedia timeline that enriches the display of 60 outfits, shown in stark white lighting against industrial metal scaffolding. As well as his training at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, Mr. Yamamoto had learned to tailor and drape from his seamstress mother.
The clothes, representing 30 years since the Japanese designer’s shows first came to Paris, are on display against a backdrop of white walls, with sketches of nude females, mostly from behind, drawn by the designer. The most striking thing about the exhibition (which runs until July 10) is that nothing is behind glass and each outfit can be touched and stroked, underlining the belief of the curator Ligaya Salazar that “fabric is everything.”
Well, not quite everything. A turquoise dress — one that fits so eloquently with Mr. Yamamoto’s signature hats — is visually striking even before you know it was made partly from Neoprene. That information comes from studying a floor plan list, since the pieces are not set out chronologically. That reflects the curator’s knowledge that Mr. Yamamoto wants his clothes to be worn for at least 10 years, so dates themselves are not significant.
But fashion shows that had a particular resonance are shown on the timeline screens: the inflated wedding dress, work with the modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch or the 1998 men’s collection with famous women from Charlotte Rampling to Vivienne Westwood as models.
The exhibit has quite a focus on menswear, starting with a velvet suit in an Art Nouveau print as an homage to the V&A. Powerful as bright plaids might be, there does not seem much point in displaying masculine designs without drawing some conclusion about Mr. Yamamoto’s gender play with women’s clothes.
Mr. Yamamoto, born in 1943, offers in the accompanying catalog a simple but quite aggressive message about the men’s clothes. “I was born in a very bad moment in Japan,” he said. “There was no food to feed babies, so my generation of people are very small. So naturally I am angry about my size, so I design big sizes.”
There is no reference in the show to Mr. Yamamoto’s Japanese peers. Much as he might wish not to be bundled into a group, a museum’s place is to inform and put an artist’s work in context. How many visitors will know that Issey Miyake has also worked intensively with classic Japanese and hyper-modern fabrics? Or that Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons was equally significant in producing asymmetric and “black crow” clothes that challenged the status quo?
As in the exhibition held in 2005 at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Mr. Yamamoto comes out as a classicist rather than an iconoclast. And so he is. There is a gentility to much of the work, with a deliberate embrace of haute couture in the houndstooth tweed Edwardian suit from a 2003 homage to Christian Dior.
The advantage of seeing the clothes up close is to appreciate the workmanship of a “simple” asymmetric drawstring dress, with the designer’s signature way of leaving space between body and garment. Ms. Salazar has grouped some of the clothes in conversation: for example, as a dialogue between different dresses made with shibori and yuzen Japanese dyeing techniques.
With concentrated effort, a visitor could select a dress — say, a red asymmetric crinoline — and then find it in movement in its original fashion show on one of the many consoles on the time-line wall.
These visual collaborations include images from the designer’s photographer Max Vadukul through Paolo Roversi to Nick Knight, as well as the influence of the art director Marc Ascoli. The message conveyed is how much these artistic people helped to develop the Yohji Yamamoto image of feminism fused with romantic yearning.
There are also two other Yamamoto projects in London, as well as a new flagship Y-3 store on Conduit Street celebrating the designer’s longstanding collaboration with the sports giant Adidas.
In South London, there is an exhibition of photographs of “Yohji’s Women” (until May 14) at the Wapping Project Bankside Galleries, while the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station has the famous 1998 crinoline wedding dress suspended over water (until July 14).
The V&A also has more than the bold display by Mr. Yamamoto’s longtime collaborator, the scenographer Masao Nihei. Dotted across the museum, in “conversation” groupings with other artifacts, there are three of the designer’s men’s outfits among classic statues in the sculpture gallery; or red garments set against the intense richness of 15th-century hunting tapestries.
But the most beautiful combination is of a 19th-century piano, ornate with marquetry, and an apparently simple white dress made for Pina Bausch, shown rippling in folds from the back.
As Mr. Yamamoto defines his approach: “With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.”

nytimes.com

 

[Psylocke]

[...] the exhibition (which runs until July 10) [...]

I'll be in London in June and I'll definitely check this out It sounds amazing!

 

[user500]

a great complementary video with interview, many runway shots and yohji shows some of his drawings

Yohji Yamamoto: The poet of black looks back

As a new V&A one-man show opens the Japanese designer reflects on his thirty year career in fashion



The fashion world hardly knew what to make of Yohji Yamamoto's extraordinary alternative vision of fashion when he first showed his clothes on the Paris catwalks in 1981. Three decades later, it's a different story. Yohji is lionised not just as a fashion great but as a guru and an artist by his peers.



In this compelling 20-minute film shot in Yamamoto's Tokyo studio, the designer provides a laconic, engaging and sometimes passionate commentary on his career and design values.
He considers how his work has evolved since his Paris debut, explains why he designs so differently for men and women and touches on his plans to paint murals for his V&A exhibition this spring. Along the way, Yamamoto also provides a withering personal analysis of the current state of the fashion industry.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/people/fashion/yohji_yamamoto_the_poet_of_black/



btw pina bausch is mentioned...wim wenders has recently completed his movie about her

 

[softgrey]

i'm already looking into flights so i can go and see this...
...

 

[ultramarine]

Oh, God! Now I know how heaven looks like.

 

[kiddokiddo]

^Indeed, I feel euphoric just by reading it. A must see

 

[MissMagAddict]

New Film from SHOWstudio which coincides with the opening of the V&A exhibition : In Conversation, About Yohji Yamamoto

 

[Scott]

is there anybody more thoughtful,honest,integral,sensitive and organic as he is? and i love his comments regarding menswear. i really wish i could get to london to see this.

 

[MulletProof]

^ me too!

Thanks for sharing that video, MMA .. what a fascinating person, every pause he makes seems like such an intricate search for a group of words to fully express himself.. it's that sincerity and modesty and the serenity in which he carries that what doesn't cease to awe me and grow deep admiration for him.. he's such a poet.. and he doesn't even try!. Listening to him in person must be quite an amazing experience.

 

[girlalamode]

WOW, I cannot wait to see this!

 

[JuiceMajor]

am going there tomorrow!

 

[Scott]

btw,you guys,there is an accompanying book edited by the curator of the exhibition releasing soon.

http://www.amazon.com/Yohji-Yamamot...UTF8&coliid=I1PI1QE5TOMIFC&colid=GD0KUTX3IBBV

 

[softgrey]

yohji seems a little angry...
in that interview...
you tell 'em yohji...
no more ****ty clothing!!!...
*punk*


there's also a panel discussion with nick night
http://showstudio.com/project/in_conversation#panel_discussion

hope you have a great time juice...



*if it sucks...don't tell me...cause i'm going, no matter what!...
...

 

[JuiceMajor]

The book is already on sale at the V&A and i would recommend to go see it if you are in London. Well presented! I learn so much of his work!