Originally posted by Fashion Wire Daily Paris June 29@ 2003
Yohji's Creative Casting Call
By Godfrey Deeny
Yohji Yamamoto must have been a casting director in an earlier life.
The designer's uncanny ability to discover great faces and figures to interpret his clothes is second to none in fashion. Such was the case Saturday in Paris when Yamamoto sent out two novel sets of characters to model his spring-summer 2004 men's collections.
From one corner came a dignified company of mature men wearing the designer's signature collection, while from the other streamed a team of post-grunge youths in his junior Y's line.
The adult stars of the show were Tina Bausch dancer Lutz and Kouyate Sotigui, a handsome 66-year-old from Mali and fetish actor of theater great Peter Brook, who was making his runway debut.
Sotigui's final pose, in a linen shirt, flared pleated skirt and his own gnarly cane, had great dignity, and summed up the top line's theme - it's a great thing for guys to wear skirts.
"I went fishing on an island for some time and stayed in a skirt the whole time. Men have been wearing skirts for centuries and it's crazy they don't anymore. There's too much conformity, let's wear a dress," Yohji told FWD. A tanned Yamamoto had just come from a holiday on a remote island in the Pacific, but refused to say which one. Even his staff claimed not to know.
Yohji made his skirts pleated, billowing, pocketed and to the ankle. By pairing them with sleek linen redingotes, fitted shirts and jackets with corset-style lacing, he created a clever, elegant and new collection. It's kinda hard to see lots of men suddenly donning skirts or frocks, but if they do sum up the energy to break a few rules next spring, then Yamamoto's is the boutique to visit.
The designer's junior Y's looks harked back to grunge, with baggy faded jeans and bright plaid and tartan shirts, worn in duplicate and around the waist of several models.
With shaggy hair and sleepy looks, the Y's models looked like fans on their way to a Nirvana concert, while their elders in the signature collection looked like they had emerged from some exotic world, whose map was Yohji's imagination.
I adore him.
Tina Bauch and Peter Brook he's such a genious... Loved his casting and I was sure his collection was inspired by clothes he likes to wear himself 
