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Yohji Yamamoto’s Groovy Governesses

Difficult women, the sort that used to be locked away merely for being different, were the inspiration for the latest women’s ready-to-wear collection by Yohji Yamamoto, staged Friday evening, Oct. 2, in Paris.

Their hair bedraggled and covered in dust, their eyes covered in wacky squares of makeup in blue or green, their lips rouged but with blackened mouths, the models marched angrily out on the small wooden catwalk in the designer’s European headquarters in central Paris, in a small, intimate show.

Yet amongst the crazy ladies were clothes of considerable poise, from the sublimely cut white men’s cotton shirts made with off the shoulder neckline or another cut like a frock coat.

If there was a single professional ideal for this collection, it is surely that of governess, though one estranged in an ancient Transylvanian castle, where the count is a Japanese poet.

Even a leather bomber and a slate gray linen coat were cut like straightjackets, so evident was the sense of derangement. Yet, overall, the mood was typically poetic Yamamoto, albeit with a large dose of sex appeal, like the saucy black mini skirts that one glimpsed beneath the governess coats.

As the show continued, more and more looks were riddled with holes, until a final quintet of micro prairie flower print looks that seemed positively moth-eaten.

“It’s about women being difficult, behaving like bitches,” explained Yamamoto, dressed in a white lab coat, splattered with paint and ink, like a mad scientist just emerging from his lab.

Yamamoto also showed very stylish, small granny black shoes, with studded toes and heels in a show attended by Michele Norsa, president of Salvatore Ferragamo, with whom Yamamoto has a footwear joint venture.

They seemed ideal for creeping around the scientist’s castle at night, candle in hand.

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