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It’s a rare day in womenswear when the words “she’s so heavy” can actually be applied to what’s walking down the catwalk, but when The Beatles are singing them and the girl in question is wearing a black Yohji Yamamoto pyjama suit and a sharp black wig, it all makes sense. “I want you so bad,” John Lennon crooned over and over again as Yamamoto’s first couple of black deconstructed dresses and suits made their way around his trademark square catwalk in the Bercy sports bunker. But as a series of black origami-like dresses took over, quickly followed by black asymmetrical frayed-edge jackets, it was Sir Paul McCartney, who provided the vocals that definitively defined the soul of the collection: “Can you take me back to where I came from?” he proposed, as a string of Yamamoto’s signature roping, and dresses constructed of interweaved strands of pleated fabric, cemented the self-referential theme. Like the soundtrack, it was a rootsy collection with a nostalgic vibe about it, which felt remarkably personal on Yamamoto’s part. And if the all-black first half of the show gave it a melancholic feel, it was interrupted by a sudden splash of purple fur on a black 50s dress, backed up by the defiant message of another Beatles classic, Happiness is a Warm Gun, and eventually by a totally unexpected three exits of sculptural tops and floor-length skirts in oversaturated pop art colours, paired with the words of Lennon on the speakers: “She’s old enough to know better.” But it was the final segment of the show, eight crazy disco dandy looks of Yohji-fied 70s tailoring, which put the icing on the designer’s walk down memory lane. And what better lyrics to finish on than McCartney’s, “Get back to where you once belonged”? It was an impressive rollercoaster through the history and emotional gamut of a fashion legend, and one that boded well for his future, too. When it comes to Yohji Yamamoto, it’s a good thing that old habits die hard.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
