Attending a Yohji Yamamoto show for the first time means feeling the vertigo that Paris has known since 1981. That year the designer landed in the city and overturned its idea of elegance with black, oversize volume and raw edges, and he has kept that radicalism alive ever since through a method of extreme technical rigour, pushed so far that it can afford to loosen. For his Spring-Summer 2027 collection, shoulders cut with a tailor’s precision release strips, cords and ropes in a disorder that reads as composed, strand by strand.
Each look gives its surface a different language. A gown in ash and ink gathers into crescents that sweep across the torso, while a slate wrap curls around the hips in a stiff ruffle, its sleeves ending in soft tassels. Elsewhere the cloth becomes a canvas. Angular shapes of cobalt, olive and pale grey float on a dark ground, a pieced cape printed in cream and black falls over a skirt of dark threads flecked with chartreuse, and a corset dress mixes rust, indigo and smoke beneath large folds.
The cut keeps its authority. A sheer jacket parts over an asymmetric hem, a long sleeveless coat in voile drapes above stripes of red wine and black, and a cropped vest over a bodice cut in ladder rungs bares the midriff, with trousers wide enough to move like skirts. A long jacket frayed into pale filaments carries daylight into the structure. Ribbons weave through black into grids that let air reach the skin, and a sweeping coat of loose netting leaves its edges unfinished above layers of shadow. Footwear echoes the ease, with sandals, mesh derbies and supple boots.
The soundtrack reaches for popular love songs in two languages, Casablanca by Bertie Higgins, Irrésistiblement by Sylvie Vartan and a cover of Unchained Melody. Each speaks of attraction, absence or return, of two people who gravitate toward one another. Their warmth meets the dark fabric like a caress meeting a thread, and every loose end seems to sway toward its neighbour, so that the walk becomes a slow duet between garment and body. The music lends the labour a heart, and every step answers it.
Instead of the final walk of all the models, Yohji Yamamoto alone climbs the few steps and greets the crowd. Seeing the master of noir in person for the first time brings a deep, intense emotion.
