Thirteen years after the last major Yohji Yamamoto retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Japanese designer is once again centre stage in a neat little avant-garde exhibition in Milan. It is the opportunity to rediscover some of the most iconic womenswear looks created by the Japanese deconstruction master in the course of the last 40 years. Yamamoto’s work is showcased in the Galleria section of renowned Milanese concept store 10 Corso Como, where it will be on display until July 31.

 
A single white-painted room is home to 25 Yamamoto creations, selected from the label’s archives in Paris and in Japan, covering the period from 1986 to 2024. Besides the Japanese designer’s obsessively black looks, the exhibition features several garments in white and in the scarlet red that sometimes brightens up Yamamoto’s runway shows.
 
The first striking element is the modernity of Yamamoto’s creations – mostly dresses and classic coats – despite the fact they have been designed over a period of several decades. It is indeed no coincidence that the exhibition is entitled ‘Yohji Yamamoto: Letter to the Future’. A black coat whose back features scruffy strips of red silk gathered into a faux derrière, dating back to the Fall/Winter 1986-87, is presented facing its current version, tweaked only in the volumes, for the Fall/Winter 2024-25.

The other element highlighted by the exhibition is the way in which Yamamoto, who revolutionised fashion when he moved to Paris in 1981 – like his compatriot Rei Kawakubo – has worked painstakingly with Western fashion’s archetypes, deconstructing them to better understand and transform them. Starting from crinoline dresses and frock coats, as in a look for the Fall/Winter 1995-96 that matches a sort of reinterpreted Bar jacket to a long draped skirt, worn with a New Look hat, all of them made in thick red wool.

 
Each model reveals a different facet of the Yamamoto aesthetic. For example, his search for a blueprint, evident in a Spring/Summer 2000 ensemble in ecru cotton akin to pattern-making toile, poetically enhanced by a feather umbrella. And his exploration of graphic motifs and of forms, exemplified by a summer 2005 bustier dress whose pleats are reminiscent of the texture of corals.
 
“What is most surprising is the twin temperament that characterises Yohji Yamamoto’s work. In his creations, he manages to be simultaneously Zen and spiritual on the one hand, and carnal and sensual on the other,” said Alessio de’Navasques, curator of the exhibition. He is also in charge of the culture & fashion programme of 10 Corso Como’s Galleria, while Alessandro Rabottini oversees its contemporary art events. The concept store’s cultural space, the brainchild of Carla Sozzani, was entirely renovated and upgraded in early 2024, according to the vision of Tiziana Fausti, the current owner of 10 Corso Como.