“Basically, I hate science. Science is destroying the earth, don’t you think so?”

The joy of time spent with Yohji Yamamoto lies partially in his conversational curveballs. Team Adidas had just solemnly informed me in the elevator up to Yamamoto’s curtained off smoky citadel that this Y-3 collection was a portrait in technically realized sportswear of various future archetypes of man. A sci-fi collection. Thus when in the presence of The Man, one relied on the pre-intelligence and asked about science fiction. And thus, this. I muttered about penicillin, and weakly suggested that people not information are the ones to blame for our yen for self-destruction. Yamamoto offered me a cigarette—a Japanese brand called Hi-Lite—and we shaved a few minutes off our lives in an atmosphere of intense and convivial satisfaction.

Downstairs, afterwards, the collection was indeed as preambled. Held in an airlock-hot white-walled pod, the looks were black, white, or pale institutional green. They were sleek and futuristic. The finale featured a few ensembles that auto-inflated. Some looks featured mouth-tubes a la Dune. There were interesting sliced folding details in hem and arm. It was very sci-fi and gripping to watch but, like Interstellar, probably about 20 percent too long—a hard-eyed edit would have been good.

Cut back upstairs—time-lapse!—to that meeting earlier. Yamamoto had said: “In big cities like Tokyo, New York, and Paris there are so many casual fashions. It looks so ugly and dirty to me. So I decided we design almost monotone sportswear. It might be beautiful in the street.” And it would be.

Yamamoto said something hilariously undiplomatic about his shoes—a fancy and important new design by Adidas—so I asked if he had always been such an incorrigibly raucous soul: Was he a devilish fellow at school too? The Yamamoto visage lit up in recollection. “We did so many bad things to teacher!” Like what? “Spraying his white coat with blue ink!” And what did this teacher teach? “Science!” Aha! This review’s intro traced the effect, but perhaps its payoff might reveal the cause. Yamamoto agreed: “It can often happen. When you don’t like a teacher you start hating what he teaches.” Yamamoto is an education.