Yohji Yamamoto | |
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Yohji Yamamoto at New York Fashion Week, February 2010
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Born |
Tokyo, Japan |
3 October 1943
Nationality | Japanese |
Education | Law Degree - Keio University: Fashion Design - Bunka Fashion College |
Occupation | Fashion designer |
Labels | Yohji Yamamoto, Y's, Y-3 |
Yohji Yamamoto (山本 耀司 Yamamoto Yōji?, born 1943) is an influential Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Considered a master tailor alongside those such as Madeleine Vionnet, he is known for his avant-garde tailoring featuring Japanese design aesthetics.
Yamamoto has won notable awards for his contributions to fashion, including the Chevalier of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, the Ordre national du Mérite, the Royal Designer for Industry and the Master of Design award by Fashion Group International.
Born in Tokyo, Yamamoto graduated from Keio University with a degree in law in 1966. He gave up a prospective legal career to assist his mother in her dressmaking business, from where he learned his tailoring skills. He further studied fashion design at Bunka Fashion College, getting a degree in 1969.
Yamamoto debuted in Paris in 1981. In an interview with the New York Times in 1983, Yamamoto said of his designs, "'I think that my men's clothes look as good on women as my women's clothing […] When I started designing, I wanted to make men's clothes for women." More recently he has expounded: “When I started making clothes for my line Y’s in 1977, all I wanted was for women to wear men’s clothes. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman’s body. I wanted to protect the woman’s body from something – maybe from men’s eyes or a cold wind.”