Yohji Yamamoto

The definitive monograph on the complete work of Yohji Yamamoto-one of fashion's most transformative designers working today and widely acknowledged as a master of postwar fashion design. Since the early '80s, Yohji Yamamoto's groundbreaking silhouettes and innovative design aesthetic have propelled him to the highest rank of the international avant-garde. Distinguished by his antifashion approach, Yamamoto changed the face of contemporary fashion, radically transforming it with asymmetrical and highly conceptual designs partly inspired by the techniques of traditional Japanese kimonos. His vision came as a refreshing contrast to the power suits and brightly clad fashions of the time, forcing a reconsideration of the future direction of fashion. Yamamoto launched his first collection in 1977 in Tokyo and followed this success with the debut of his experimental and critically celebrated Yohji Yamamoto label in Paris in 1981. This luxuriously bound book explores all the major themes in his thirty years of counter-fashion design. Illustrated with photographs by Craig McDean, Inez & Vinoodh, Max Vadukul and Nick Knight, each chapter elaborates on a particular theme-his sartorial philosophy, influential extensions into scenography, runway shows, monographic exhibitions, and costume design-and is anchored by an essay or interview that lends crucial insight to the story of Yohji Yamamoto, one of the most enigmatic and iconoclastic fashion designers of our time.