Yohji Yamamoto

Japanese fashion designer · Japan · Designers · Born 1943 · age 83

Yohji Yamamoto is read about 713 times a day, in 24 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 22 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 397 days, one point a day.

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Yamamoto draped the body in black, recut the silhouette, and made Paris reckon with a different idea of what clothes could be - not decoration, but architecture with a Japanese accent.

A life in dates

2011“To be modern is to tear the soul out of every thing.”In their wordsMy Dear Bomb (2011)Read the whole statement

“It is also important to carefully read the cards that life deals you, and to play the right hand at the right moment for maximum effect.”In their wordsMy Dear Bomb (2011)Read the whole statement

Commandeur des Arts et des LettresAward2006Honorary Royal Designer for IndustryAward2002“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.”In their wordsKiyokazu Washida. The Past, the Feminine, the Vain in Talking to Myself (2002), Ch. 2: The Feminine, or the Gap Which Cannot be Filled.Read the whole statement

“Dirty, stained, withered, broken things seem beautiful to me.”In their wordsKiyokazu Washida. The Past, the Feminine, the Vain in Talking to Myself (2002), Ch. 3: Feedom or the Vain.Read the whole statement

“I want to achieve anti-fashion through fashion. That's why I'm always heading in my own direction, in parallel to fashion.”In their wordsYohji Yamamoto. May I Help You? in Talking to Myself (2002), Ch. 9: Creation.Read the whole statement

1994Chevalier des Arts et des LettresAward1989“Generally speaking, I am not interested in the future and don't believe in it.”In their wordsWim Wenders. Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989). (The above transcription is from Kiyokazu Washida. The Past, the Feminine, the Vain inRead the whole statement

1943Born3 October 1943

Also in Deutsch

Photos 2

Yohji Yamamoto designed gown, 1998

In their own words 8

Yohji Yamamoto

8 statements, newest first

To be modern is to tear the soul out of every thing.
2011, My Dear Bomb (2011), Own words
It is also important to carefully read the cards that life deals you, and to play the right hand at the right moment for maximum effect.
2011, My Dear Bomb (2011), Own words
I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.
2002, Kiyokazu Washida. The Past, the Feminine, the Vain in Talking to Myself (2002), Ch. 2: The Feminine, or the Gap Which Cannot be Filled., Own words

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On YouTube

117K subscribers

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Awards

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres2011

Honorary Royal Designer for Industry2006

Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres1994

About this person

Born 3 October 1943, Yamamoto trained as a tailor in Tokyo before presenting collections that read like arguments against Western fashion's fitted optimism. He set up between Tokyo and Paris, building a practice around avant-garde cuts that borrowed from Japanese aesthetics - loose where others cinched, dark where others flashed color. The work earned him France's Chevalier, Officier, and Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, the Ordre national du Mérite, Britain's Royal Designer for Industry, and Fashion Group International's Master of Design. He is spoken of alongside Madeleine Vionnet when the conversation turns to pure tailoring. The clothes still look like they came from a different century's future.

Country

Japan

Designers from Japan 6

Kansai Yamamoto66.3 Hiroshi Fujiwara63.4

Issey Miyake61.8

Tomoe Shinohara60.8 Rei Kawakubo57.7

Kenzō Takada57.5

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