Yohji Yamamoto, born on October 3, 1943, in Tokyo, is a pioneering Japanese fashion designer known for his avant-garde and oversized designs that challenge conventional fashion norms. Making his mark in 1981 with a debut in Paris, Yamamoto blends Japanese design principles with a European avant-garde aesthetic, featuring asymmetry and monochromatic palettes. Renowned for pushing boundaries, he has collaborated with brands like Adidas, creating the successful Y-3 line that fuses sportswear with high fashion. Beyond clothing, Yamamoto has worked on costume design for theatrical productions and films. His innovative contributions have earned him international acclaim, numerous awards, and a lasting impact on the fashion industry, influencing contemporary designers worldwide.
Yohji Yamamoto Quotes
1. “I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
2. “Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
3. “I only see the faults, flaws, the imperfections. That attracts me.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
4. “People have started wasting fashion.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
5. “Clothing doesn’t lie, it shows everything.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
6. “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy – but mysterious. But above all black says this: “I don’t bother you – don’t bother me”.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
7. “A beautiful flower does not exist. There’s only a moment when a flower looks beautiful.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
8. “Fashion cannot make you sexy. Experience makes you sexy. Imagination makes people sexy. You have to train yourself, you have to study, and you have to live your life.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
9. “Colour disturbs people. I am confident in black, not in light. This dark side of life is attractive to me forever and from the beginning. I am a lazy designer when it comes to colour.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
10. “You can say that designing is quite easy; the difficulty lies in finding a new way to explore beauty.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
11. “With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
12. “Dirty, stained, withered, broken things seem beautiful to me.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
13. “To be modern is to tear the soul out of every thing.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
14. “Adidas is a very personal inspiration to me. It has enriched my creative life. It’s an exchange between different cultures, different ideas, and most of all, it is teamwork.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
15. “If you feel strongly about someone, go up to them. Pursue what you want in life. Why be shy about something like that?”
— Yohji Yamamoto
16. “I always want to have a new challenge involved. I need to put myself to the test, and if I make mistakes, it doesn’t matter. What matters to me, instead, is making my dreams come true and putting them on display.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
17. “I want to achieve anti-fashion through fashion. That’s why I’m always heading in my own direction, in parallel to fashion.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
18. “My role in all of this is very simple. I make clothing like armor. My clothing protects you from unwelcome eyes.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
19. “I don’t think we should try to make space our own. I believe that as modern people we should live in mobility. We should always be moving.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
20. “Beautiful things are disappearing every day.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
21. “A pair of brilliantly cut cotton trousers can be more beautiful than a gorgeous silk gown…”
— Yohji Yamamoto
22. “I feel like I have become a living fossil in the fashion world. Without even noticing it, in my own collection I have moved away from the street style.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
23. “Fashion is only complete when it is worn by ordinary people who exist now, managing their lives, loving and grieving.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
24. “The more we possess, the more distant we grow from God.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
25. “The best moments in my life are just before going to bed. Those are my happiest moments.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
26. “I’m going to create a very strong scent which can kill a boy!”
— Yohji Yamamoto
27. “There is also a schedule to fashion – the deadline is always set. So maybe the fashion business is a good business for me in that way because I’m basically lazy, man.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
28. “I have no imagination about holidays, vacations, or retiring life. I can’t imagine about those things.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
29. “My whole life is made up of: “I’m sorry”. I feel like I have to apologize to people, to things, to life itself. It’s like, “I’m sorry to be here”. I don’t want to disturb anyone. But in my work, in the clothes I create, I’m actually telling people that I’m here. So, I guess I’m disturbing them, after all.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
30. “I am an animal making clothes.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
31. “In my philosophy, the word androgyny doesn’t have any meaning. I think there is no difference between men and women. We are different in body, but sense, spirit and soul are the same.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
32. “Just listen to the material. What is it going to say? Just wait. Probably the material will tell you something.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
33. “For me, a woman who is absorbed in her work, who does not care about gaining one’s favor, strong yet subtle at the same time, is essentially more seductive. The more she hides and abandons her femininity, the more it emerges from the very heart of her existence.”
— Yohji Yamamoto
