Tokyo 1991
In 1991 the Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, together with Comme des Garcons, was putting on the first men's fashion show in Japan and asked me to be one of his runway models. At the time Yohji prefered to use actors and musicians over models and he has also used athletes in the past. I flew to Tokyo from Los Angeles and was picked up at the airport and taken to a very nice hotel in Tokyo, which Frank Lloyd Wright had designed in the sixties.
The show took place in the olympic swim stadium of Tokyo, where the pool had been covered by a runway stage. On each end of the runway a huge wall was erected. Behind one wall Yamamoto was set up and behind the other wall Comme Des Garcons.
Comme Des Garcons: Dennis Hopper, Trumpet player Don Cherry and his son Eagle-Eye Cherry (a TV presenter in the UK and not yet the pop star), british actor Julian something or other, Keyboardist Morgan Fisher (who later produced the wonderful CD "
Miniatures" to which I contributed a piece)...
Yohji Yamamoto: Charles Lloyd, Edgar Winter, a member of YMO (one of Japans most famous bands, which also featured Ryuichi Sakamoto)...
Yohji and his people treated everyone wonderfully. And then he made a mistake on the day of the show. Thinking we were all men instead of the stars some felt they were, he offered as part of the refreshments Japanese cans of beer. In Japan cans are tiny, they are cute and many of the guys probably thought that one couldn't possibly get drunk from drinking tiny cans of beer....well, if you drink a dozen of them you do get drunk, you know! And then a British pop singer asked a French rapper to turn down the crap on his boom-box and the French guy responded with his fist, which fractured the pop guy's jaw. While he was rushed to the hospital Yohji's people frantically searched for somebody who could wear his clothes.... In the end one of Yohji's French employees took his place and wore the clothes well. I felt terribly embarassed. Here we were in one of the great cities of the world, guests of a real artist, and these men had to get into a fight. What a way to repay Yohji's kindness! But fame is fleeting and karma instant.. I never heard from the British pop star and the French rapper again...
I remember how amazed we were at the Japanese audience. Some had waited since the early morning hours and yet, when the doors opened the first in line went to the last seat instead of claiming the best seat in the house. It was almost biblical....
One thing I remember about the show itself is that Yohji, who is a guitarist himself and also produced the soundtrack, had installed sound triggers along the runway. We were invited to step on those triggers, each of which controlled a different sound that would blast over the music. Car crashes, industrial sounds, drum breaks, glass breaking, guitar riffs etc...I also remember that the Brit who was walking ahead of me was drunk or high or both and thought that the crowd's enthusiasm was directed at him instead of the clothing...I remember three or four people helping me change into the next outfit, grabbing shirts, pulling on shoes...I remember the late Don Cherry walking around on the runway like a court jester and greeting the other Comme Des Garcons walkers...to be continued
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