It never feels quite appropriate to draw many parallels between different seasons of Yohji Yamamoto’s work, but his spring-summer 2014 shared its fighting spirit with the previous summer’s upfront fistfight. However, violence took a more sophisticated turn through kung-fu, referenced in very recognizable jackets and silhouettes. Blades have replaced fists and the consequences of this can only be seen in movement: a hole here, a slash across the chest there, revealing a flash of flesh below. Tellingly, the music was a mellowed out rock, almost a series of guitar studies.



Further on, a wet looking group of silhouettes evoked rain. Perhaps a reminiscence of one of the pivotal scenes of Wong Kar-Wai’s latest production The Grandmaster and its confrontation in the rain, or rather the Ando Hiroshige print Sudden Rain in Shono used to illustrate the invitation? Although dry, textures were manipulated to evoke wet fabric through washed silks and surface treatments, cut into classically Yamamoto tailoring. Thrown in were some surrealist elements, such as the giant clock across a blue striped shirt, trompe-l’oeil suits made of a jacket worn under dungarees in a cloudy print. Had the spirit of Magritte floated past, looking for his umbrella? Yamamoto’s dandies seemed to have forgotten to use their animal handle ones. And one would be remiss not to mention the colors. The Japanese designer does not often use them, but when he does, they’re unusually pretty: sky blue on a shoe or hiding under a long coat, a lush looking orange, a sunny yellow.



As for the words painted on the faces of the final group of five immaculate silhouettes - Ugly, Angel, Help, Bad, Me, scrawled haphazardly across cheeks- there was no explanation. But that is perhaps the best trick of the Yamamoto playbook: always be one riddle ahead of the curve.



- Lily Templeton

