INTERVIEW: YOHJI YAMAMOTO TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY / DAPPER DAN VOL.03

Note: The interview took place a few days before the release of "My Dear Bomb" as well as the opening of the Yamamoto exhibition at the V&A MUSEUM and was originally published in Dapper Dan, Issue 03, March 2011. Photography by Vassilis Karidis

The legendary, and legendarily private, fashion legend Yohji Yamamoto has recently surprised his fans by publishing a biography. It was co-written by a longtime Yamamoto collaborator, Ai Mitsuda; spanning memoir, fiction and philosophy, it is both more abstract and more deeply personal than a traditional biography.

This March, meanwhile, the V&A in London will pay homage to Yamamoto with a full-blown retrospective. It is, of course, no traditional exhibition, but a series of site-specific installations that lead visitors around the V&A and raise questions about process and permanence. With Yamamoto, the journey is, as ever, the destination.

Motwary: What made you decide to share the most intimate parts of your life and career with the world?

Yamamoto: It is not literally a biography. It is a mix of novel, documentary, essay, confession and lying. It