Shop Yohji Yamamoto Shoes

The Yohji Yamamoto Label

Yohji Yamamoto Shoes is the most playful of the highly respected Japanese design triumvirate that also includes Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo. Never conventionally sexy or trendy, Yohji Yamamoto Shoes appeals to clients who appreciate wit, romance, and the history of fashion; his clothes are full of allusions, and he’s as capable of dropping a reference to an Edwardian tea dress in a track suit. Although his palette is somber, he’s never funereal; there’s too much joie de vivre in the floppy, flowing, sensual fabrics to bring down the mood.

The Yohji Yamamoto Shoes Look

Sculptural, intriguing, often oversize. While black is far and away his predominant color, Yohji Yamamoto occasionally throw in zingers like the hot-pink-and-fuchsia coat dress tied with organza that opened his fall 2006 collection.

The Yohji Yamamoto Shoes Designer

Yohji Yamamoto Shoes was born in Tokyo in 1943 and studied law before attending the prestigious Bunka Fukuso Gakuin design school. He presented his first womenswear collection in 1972 in Paris under the name Y’s, and he brought out a higher-priced signature label nine years later. He has several fragrances as part of his deal with Procter & Gamble, and his 2003 partnership with Adidas created the Y-3 label, one of the first and most successful of the designer-activewear marriages. In summer 2006, he signed a deal to design luggage and accessories for Italian luggage specialist Mandarina Duck, and his chief executive Keizo Tamoto wants to expand Yohji Yamamoto’s +Noir sportswear line and accessories.

In addition to the admiration of his peers (Donna Karan wears Yohji Yamamoto Shoes), he’s has acquired numerous awards. He’s the only Japanese designer to receive France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Not only doesYohji Yamamoto Shoes a large chunk of the international arts community, he’s also collaborated on film projects with Wim Wenders, Takeshi Kitano, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and done costumes for the Pina Bausch Company and the Wagner Opera.

Biography available at nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/designers/bios/yamamoto/