1999

I really love the beginning of this show. I always wanted to dress like an androgynous boy but alas my build is not made for that look. I really like how Yohji pushes this idea of paring down clothes to something so simple and free. Its so modern to release the woman and allow her to be comfortable.


Currently that austere simplicity is not de rigueur, so to speak. The simplicity of those minimal looks in the nineties came to feel very sterile and cold after a while and so the pendulum swung and here we are having a bit of an ornate moment. I wish I could say this better but for lack of better words: right now I feel like people want to wear lots of special things. Things that have a history and a personal story. Clothing that is embroidered, patched, personalized, the more outrageous the better and there is a bit of an anything goes attitude; as long as you are committed to it. Homes are once again mini-museums with all sorts of relics and collections, the more the merrier. I remember struggling in the nineties to match the prevalent minimal aesthetic in design and fashion. Those who were old enough back then will remember Prada Sports, Gap black pants and matte lipstick. I did all of this very awkwardly. I'm more in sync with this post-modern haber-dashery we have now. But looking back more than a decade later I really appreciate what the designers were doing then. I really feel like Yohji is saying something here and there is something very powerful there that is missing from all the merely pretty things I see around me right now.