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Y-3: Concessions on a Gym Floor

After the Y-3 show’s glamorous waterfront digs last September on Manhattan’s west side, with a poetic staging of models on multiple conveyor belts and floating barges with Dan Flavin-like neon lights that gradually moved closer to the docks, a gymnasium at New York City school Hunter College seemed a curious choice for this season’s collection, shown on Wednesday evening, February 7. But this being fashion’s conceptual king Yohji Yamamoto, you knew there had to be a reason for it, and combined with sports giant adidas, you knew it wouldn’t look too shabby.

After being herded like sports fans into a basketball arena, with concessions like popcorn and orange soda and vodka offered along the way, audience members made their precarious descent down the steep bleachers (who thought mixing alcohol, stilettos and steps was a good idea?). Once seated, they took in the scene: a sleek black runway that ran along the perimeter of sunken black playing field with the Y-3 logo emblazoned onto it. On either end of the court digital timers counted down to the show.

But before the runway show, there were the inevitable front row theatrics, and no celebrity we’ve witnessed at the shows this week garnered quite as much response as French football superstar Zinedine Zidane. One fan girl even jumped up from the fourth row and sat in Zidane’s lap, while another woman screamed at a security guard to stop blocking her view so that she could take a photo, though she was seated across the court a good 50 yards away.

For the 10th collection that Yamamoto has designed for adidas, he was in the mood for droopy knits, swimming cowl necks and a long, lean and layered look, mostly in black with the occasional burst of Bordeaux, electric blue or orange. “Y-3 Moto” signaled a motorbike moment, with tough black motorcycle jackets and hooded biker sweaters.

The best innovations in the collection were the shoes for women, in particular a couple of trainers with a clear plastic heel - one in a shorter wedge version, the other with a sculptured reverse curve wedge that seemed to glide along the black lacquered runway like a pair of ice skates. Call them cleats for city walkers.

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