Limi Feu and Trace

[AlexN]

i like this. thank you, runner.

 

[runner]

you are welcome AlexN

thank you helena

 

[Estella*]

i had a look at this thread before i went to sleep yesterday and i had such sweet dreams

 

[runner]

 

[runner]

 

[runner]

 

[runner]

from limifeu.com

 

[softgrey]

thanks for the new pics runner...
i think i've decided that this collection is too 'street' for me...
it doesn't resonate with me in the way that some of her past collections have...

i think it might be nice for a younger market though...

the sweater with the long pockets still appeals to me very much though..
it really stands out from the bunch for me...

still waiting to see the rest of the fall collection...
*keeping my fingers crossed

 

[runner]

you are welcome softgrey

 

[runner]

 

[softgrey]

just found this...
i like all the bottoms that tie at the waist...

donna karan and michael kors used to do something like that in the 80's and i always liked it...it's very chic and feminine imo...

thx again runner...

 

[runner]

you're welcome softgrey


reposting of the article once posted in the Japanese avant-garde thread
from japantimes.co.jp

LIMI SPEAKS
'Overcome' scion shines in her own quirky way
November 13, 2005
By KAORI SHOJI



She may be Yohji's daughter, but Limi Yamamoto wasn't exactly born clutching a silver spoon. Her parents got divorced when she turned 2 years old, and the next 15 years were spent in a small town in Kyushu, where she saw her father once every three years or so.

Then, in her senior year in high school, Yohji took Limi to New York to show his collection. It was the first time she had seen her father's work on the runway, and Limi recalls: "I was so overcome, I just started crying."

Then and there she decided to become a designer, though she had had no prior ambitions to do so.

"I was far from being fashionable. I thought the whole business of decorating oneself was phony and tacky," she says of herself before that moment.

Now 31, Limi Yamamoto has matured into one of the most charismatic designers of her generation, and helms her own brand called LIMI feu, with eight outlets nationwide including flagship boutiques in Tokyo -- one in upscale Daikanyama and the other in young hipster Harajuku. The latter venue has become a gathering spot for the alternative Harajuku girl: a little tough, a little cerebral, markedly more complex and sophisticated than the crowd shopping at BAPY or on Takeshita-dori. In fact, they seem a lot like Limi when she first started out as a patternist in Yohji's company. ("Yohji would always walk into the pattern room just when I was munching on snacks and calling a friend," she recalls with a laugh.)

She made her Tokyo Collection debut in 2000, at age 24. Back then the brand was called Y's bis, and Limi and Yohji fans were struck by the designs that seemed to take the essential components of Yohji's designs and translate/edit them for young women. The prices, too, were more affordable than her father's stuff. Indeed, she herself says, "I still can't get over how expensive designer brands are, and the lengths women go to to buy them. Normal, working single women can't spend that much on clothes."

This isn't to say that LIMI feu is hugely affordable -- it's not. But the prices are set within a range that young women can reach, with marginally less damage to their wallets. (A beautifully cut white shirt, for example, will set you back less than 20,000 yen, and most jackets are set between 30,000 yen and 60,000 yen.)

In contrast to Yamamoto Sr., who has consistently sought to define and redefine his personal notion of the ideal woman (clean, sharp, mysterious, muting her sexuality under the voluminous folds of her Yohji dress), Limi has actively tried to bend current standards of Japanese femininity to match her own.

"I'm a woman and know how women feel. This is what I have going for me -- my father can't compete with that."

Accordingly, Limi's works have evolved from reinterpretations of her father's work to reflecting her own inner landscape. Now married and the mother of two babies (1- and 2-years old), Limi's latest 2006 Spring/Summer Collection that she showcased in Tokyo last week explores once again what it means to be a Japanese woman living and working in this workcentric land.

This time she reached out to all segments of the populace, from teenager to grandmother -- and the effect is at once intimate and universal. Limi had always had particular tastes in assembling her models and, unlike her fellow designers (or her father), she's famed for working almost exclusively with a trusted stable of Japanese models -- though one time she put together a small corps of teenage girls, all under 160 cm tall. For many in the audience it was obviously quite arresting to see the young, tiny young ladies on the runway, but to critics who complained about "amateurishness," Limi replied: "I design my clothes for Japanese women, who are by definition short-statured and skinny. Why pretend otherwise?"

In this latest collection, small gasps erupted from the audience as models in their 40s, 50s and 60s strode the runway -- in Limi's signature style of cerebral street girl. Among them was actress Jun Togawa, famed for her over-the-top, self-destructive lifestyle. Donning a flounced-out, black lace skirt (the collection's theme item) Togawa was stunning: a matured, defiant Alice in Wonderland dressed for a second round of tea with the Mad Hatter.

"This time, I wanted to demonstrate how cool older women can be," said Limi. "I was really happy about the result -- they looked fabulous, like they had just pulled these clothes out of their closets and worn them because they happened to feel like it. These women are inspiring for me, they give me something to aim for."

Limi says she is probably at the busiest time of her life: struggling to juggle family and work and still maintain her creativeness -- and the muted, crazy energy that defines her work.

Is she interested in taking her work overseas? "Not for the moment. To me, the Japanese working woman is the most demanding, fashion-conscious consumer in the world. I feel that I have to convince her first, before I convince anyone else."

limi

 

[softgrey]

that makes me want to start wearing hats more...

...
she is definitely very cool...

 

[runner]

they selected some pieces from the past trace collections and will reissue them instead of trace # 07 next month.



limifeu.com

 

[softgrey]

it's funny...part of me doesn't like that re-issue of old designs and part of me loves it...

i love being able to get things that i might have missed from previous collections...

but somehow i feel that if it is several seasons old then it should be on sale...
i have been programmed by the fashion machine to think this way...

i know that the designs do not lose their value after several months or even several years...but it's what i am used to...


anyway- i would love to get my hands on that safety pin sweater...
depending what other colours it comes in...

i asked at the showroom about whether they will sell limi in the US after the show in Paris...
no decisions have been made as of yet...

 

[runner]

I think they are likely to sell limi at the yohji store over there?
I don't know though
but at least limi A/W 07 will be available at the new yohji flagship in Antwerp which is to open in September.

 

[laika]

runner, I really hope that they will be carrying Limi in NYC soon!

Supposedly, the present Soho flagship is going to become a Y's store only; and Yohji will be opening a new flagship on Gansevoort St. in this wedge-shaped building:

{curbed.com}

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this works out, because it is very close to my home!
​

 

[softgrey]

thanks for posting that laika....
that would seriously increase the yohji presence in nyc...and give me more of an incentive to hit the meat packing district...
though it's annoying because it is NOT near my home...
...
issey is a drag too--- middle of nowhere in tribeca......

 

[runner]

thank you laika for the pic
the building on the little junction in Y seems suitable for his new flagship.
I guess she wants to have her own store there one of these days because NYC must be a special place for her as the article above says. I saw yohji and his children walking around soho on tv (when he did a show in NYC 10 years ago).

 

[helena]

but somehow i feel that if it is several seasons old then it should be on sale...
i have been programmed by the fashion machine to think this way...

but what if it was so good that it totally sold out by the time the sales started.....surely that would be a mark of its sucess and therefore worthy of re-issue?