Yamamoto was born in 1943 in Yokohama, Japan. He studied English at the Nipppon University. Subsquently, he graduated from Keio University, in 1966. He then attended Bunka Fukuso Gakuin, the Japanese College of Fashion, for 2 years till 1968. Here he studied under Chie Kolke, who attended Paris' l'Ecole with Yves St. Laurent.
He started out making clothes for his mother's friends in their Tokyo neighbourhood in the late 60's. Before Yamamooto, dressmakers were tradesmen to be treated as humble people. Not him. He had taken an extended tour of Europe, including a stay in Paris and he felt that designing clothes was as creative as painting.
After working as a freelance designer for 4 years, Yamamoto formed his own company in 1972 and showed his first collection in Japan in 1976. The presentation of his shows made him famous, dramatic clothes wre shown in an exciting environment. By blending the vigorous, exotic and powerful designs of traditional Japanese dress with Western daywear, he achieves a unique, abstract style.
He designed clothes that could be loosely layered in a way that was comfortable, smart and strangely elegant. Everyone wanted to wear the hard rigid shapes coming out of Paris, but he made something different.
By the mid-70's, he started mixing with Rei Kawakubo and they became involved both creatively and romantically, in a relationship that still survives on a platonic level to this day.
In 1981, Yamamoto opened his boutique in Paris. Uproar greeted his first shows. There just had not been anything like those black, billowing, layered clothes ever before in Paris. Now, he has been proved right. His clothes are successful worldwide. He has also started showing his ready-to-wear collections.
