The Discipline of Silence: Yohji Yamamoto and the Poetics of Black
Yohji Yamamoto once said that black is modest and arrogant at the same time. The sentence is the best short account of his work. It describes clothing that asks for no attention and receives it all the same, cut so that the garment keeps its distance from the body and the wearer from the crowd. Rei Kawakubo’s clothes argue with the viewer; Yamamoto’s withdraw from the argument. This essay follows the discipline of that silence from Tokyo to the Paris runway and the adidas stripe.
From Tokyo to Paris
Yohji Yamamoto was born in Tokyo on 3 October 1943. His company dates Y’s, the first label, to 1972 and its first Tokyo collection to 1977; Wikipedia gives 1973 for Y’s and 1984 for the Yohji Yamamoto company, so the dates vary by account. The decisive date is 1981. In April of that year he showed in Paris, at the InterContinental hotel, in the same season as Kawakubo, and the press that fell on both of them was often more shocked than informed. In 1984 he showed the first Pour Homme menswear collection in Paris.
Black as an argument
Yamamoto’s full remark is worth giving. Black, he said, is modest and arrogant at the same time; it is lazy and easy but mysterious; but above all black says: I do not bother you, do not bother me. The sentence reads as a defence of privacy, and the clothes bear it out. They are cut generously, with long lines and asymmetry; they hang from the shoulder rather than clinging to the waist, and they leave a space around the wearer that is the garment’s real subject. Writers often reach for the Japanese idea of the space between things. It is more exact to say that Yamamoto designs the distance between the body and the cloth.
The film and the notebook
In 1989 the director Wim Wenders made Notebook on Cities and Clothes, an 81-minute film commissioned by the Centre Pompidou, about Yamamoto at work. It remains the best record of his method: a designer who talks about identity, about the city, about what a garment is for, and who looks, on screen, as unhurried as his clothes. It is a good place to begin before buying.
Y-3 and the sportswear turn
In 2002 Yamamoto was appointed creative director of a collaboration with adidas, and the first Y-3 collection was for spring/summer 2003. Complex dates the partnership from 2001 and the first show to October 2002, so again the record differs; Nike is reported to have declined first. Y-3 carried his black silhouette into sneakers and track pants and made him, unexpectedly, a designer for the street. The distinction between the main line, Y’s and Pour Homme, and the diffusion line is a standard collecting division. Yohji Yamamoto and Y-3 brings the two together.
The 2009 bankruptcy, not 2019
A date is often misreported. Yohji Yamamoto Inc. filed for protection in the Tokyo District Court, as reported on 9 October 2009, with debts of more than 65 million dollars; Integral Corp backed the restructuring and the company was debt-free by November 2010. Accounts that place the filing in 2019 are mistaken.
What collectors look for
- Pour Homme leathers and seasons with artwork, such as the rider with Taishō-era imagery on the back described in our Designer Archives guide.
- The 1980s and 1990s main line, cut generously.
- Y-3 sneakers and outerwear from the early 2000s.
- Condition. Black dyes can fade; check hems and underarms, and see Japanese condition ranks.
Why Japan
Yamamoto is a Tokyo designer first, and his customers there bought for decades. A Japanese wardrobe will often hold several seasons of the same line, with the labels, hang tags and care cards still with the clothes.
In the archive now
Continue reading
- Rei Kawakubo: Against Clothing
- Issey Miyake: Clothing as Architecture
- mastermind JAPAN: Dark Symbols
- Encyclopedia entry · The Fashionista Bible
Looking for a Pour Homme season or a Y-3 size? Our Hunting Salon™ searches across Japan’s private collector circles on your behalf.
Index terms: yohji yamamoto history · yohji yamamoto black · yohji yamamoto pour homme · y-3 adidas · notebook on cities and clothes · yohji yamamoto bankruptcy 2009 · y’s yohji yamamoto · yohji yamamoto archive