Friday, September 24, 2010

Talking to Myself...

In 2002, Yohji Yamamoto came out with a book entitled "TALKING TO MYSELF"...and everything about it is amazing. It comes in a simple white cardbook box, wrapped in a sheet of white wax paper. A fold white sleeve sleeve holds the 2 volumes: the larger with a raw edge holds page upon page of drawings, photos, musings in Japanese and texts at the end by Kiyokazu Washida and Yohji, himself. They were numbered and signed.

The second, thinner volume is a roadmap of his collections beginning in 1981. Being a student of design in the 1980's led me directly to the Japanese: Yohji, Rei Kawakubo, Kenzo...they had descended upon Paris. I was taken with their intellectual and conceptual design, their battle with beauty and their negation of the traditional female form. Black was a clean slate to use as a springboard for shape, form and texture. I have since fallen in love with the Belgians but nothing can change my devotion to Yohji. See this movie if you're able: Notebook on Cities and Clothes by Wim Wenders. And if possible, find a copy of this book...it's out of print and I recently saw a copy on line for $500. Anyway, I'll share a few pages of my precious inspiration here and if you come and visit the atelier, I'll show it to you in person:

"I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things
humans make, I want to see the scars, failure, disorder, 
distortion. If I can feel those things in the works of 
others, then I like them. Perfection is a kind of order.
Like overall harmony and so on...They are things someone
forces onto a thing. A free human being does not desire
such things. And yet, I get the feeling there are a lot
of women who do not seek freedon: women who wear 
symmetrical clothes." - YOHJI YAMAMOTO 

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