Yohji Yamamoto led the Japanese fashion wave of the 1980s and 1990s into the new millennium. In October 2009, after a series of bad investments, Yamamoto Inc. went bankrupt; by the end of that year the designer had inaugurated a new business and a complete reevaluation of his direction. My Dear Bomb is an outcome of this transition moment. Coauthored with Ai Mitsuda, this carefully and beautifully written autobiography (with biographical interpolations by friends and collaborators) seamlessly combines extended meditations on clothing and life with Yamamoto's memories and anecdotes, in short, concise paragraphs. Throughout its pages, we encounter Yamamoto as a tough realist unburdened by disingenuousness ("I am, in fact, a man who may turn heartless in an instant; I desire only to settle each and every score immediately"); and, of course, as a great designer blessed with unerring instinct for his materials ("how does the cloth want to drape, to sway, to fall? If one keeps these things in mind and looks very carefully, the fabric itself begins to speak"). Illustrated with drawings by Yamamoto, this open-hearted meditation offers a take on the autobiography form as imaginative as the designer's fashion wear.
Featured image is reproduced from Yohji Yamamoto: My Dear Bomb.
One of the most experimental and poetic designeres of our time, Yohji Yamamoto revolutionized fashion in the early 1980s and has enjoyed legendary status ever since. His new autobiography, My Dear Bomb, is playful, sensuous and searching, like Yamamoto himself. The following excerpt is from the chapter, "An Artist." continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6 x 8.75 in. / 192 pgs / 25 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $50 ISBN: 9789055449798 PUBLISHER: Ludion AVAILABLE: 2/28/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Yohji Yamamoto led the Japanese fashion wave of the 1980s and 1990s into the new millennium. In October 2009, after a series of bad investments, Yamamoto Inc. went bankrupt; by the end of that year the designer had inaugurated a new business and a complete reevaluation of his direction. My Dear Bomb is an outcome of this transition moment. Coauthored with Ai Mitsuda, this carefully and beautifully written autobiography (with biographical interpolations by friends and collaborators) seamlessly combines extended meditations on clothing and life with Yamamoto's memories and anecdotes, in short, concise paragraphs. Throughout its pages, we encounter Yamamoto as a tough realist unburdened by disingenuousness ("I am, in fact, a man who may turn heartless in an instant; I desire only to settle each and every score immediately"); and, of course, as a great designer blessed with unerring instinct for his materials ("how does the cloth want to drape, to sway, to fall? If one keeps these things in mind and looks very carefully, the fabric itself begins to speak"). Illustrated with drawings by Yamamoto, this open-hearted meditation offers a take on the autobiography form as imaginative as the designer's fashion wear.