THE PERFECT AESTHETIC INDULGENCE

Fashion trends are always one step ahead. Before stepping into 2020, all major fashion brands have already launched their 2020 spring and summer collections in the fashion week, putting their ingenious designs on the shelves.

Yohji Yamamoto, an influential Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris, continues to carry out his avantgarde tailoring into its Spring/Summer 2020 collection of Yohji Yamamoto, his eponymous brand. Every piece of garment is carefully crafted to reflect his ultimate pursuit of perfection.

In the Spring/Summer 2020 women’s wear series, the theme “Surrealism” is expressed in terms of artwork, which liberates human nature by releasing the subconscious between dream and illusion. Taking the classic painting – “Persistence of Memory” by Spanish modern artist – Salvador Dali as an inspiration, the melting clock presents an irregular shape, corresponding to the bold and curly asymmetrical skirts in the series, seemingly elusive yet easy to wear with functional details, while the styling iron wire inside the skirt can be dismantled for easy preservation.

Another theme of the women’s wear series is “Cubism”, which can be seen from the geometric dresses. Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by European painters like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Yohji Yamamoto turned to minimalist dresses, using simple geometric cuts like circles, triangles and squares for a strong shoulder cutting, celebrating the theme of “Cubism”.

The series also featured a large amount of exquisite embroidery, handmade by Shanagar, an embroidery company in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, India. Yamamoto first cut the embroideries into pieces, reconstructed them, and then resewed them on the collection, while some of the patterns were first painted by Japanese emerging artist Yuuka Asakura, and then hand-replicated by Japanese craftsmen, making this garment the most enticing piece in the series.

Interestingly enough, the men’s wear series is actually inspired by womenswear, focusing on the flowy fabric. After much experimentation and research, Yamamoto decided to use a light and wrinkled material, especially on the coats, which perfectly deduces the theme of spring and summer men’s wear series “Flowing Elegance”.

Teamed up with Japanese painter Suzume Uchida, Yamamoto summoned up different “monster” patterns, conveying the theme of genderless, breaking through gender boundaries and constrictions. The details such as the drapes of the hem and the flared cuffs also echo the theme of “Flowing Elegance”.

Inspired by the costumes worn by French knights in tournaments in the 1940s, Yamamoto adopted eye-catching prints from the cover of ancient medieval books in the spring and summer men’s wear series, as well as velvet fabric to demonstrate his hazy, unique aesthetic.