January 27, 2006

Yohji Yamamoto is a man's man. Not for him the disco fripperies of fashion. Instead, for his latest show, he favored the vocal stylings of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Captain Beefheart, three of music's great croakmeisters. Those crooners can come across as both insufferably lugubrious and bracingly tongue-in-chic, and so it was with these clothes. At first, the relentless navy, the boxy silhouette, and the tricksy lapels (doubled, or detached and hanging down, or buttoned across, or pleated) suggested the Yohji we know all too well. But then his playful side took flight.

College-striped wool jackets featured stitched slits back and front, which gaped like wounds. OK, maybe that's not so cheery, but the treble clef embroidered on the back of another jacket was reminiscent of surrealist Man Ray's famous superimposition on a woman's bare back. Jackets draped with medal-like attachments had a toy-soldier charm, matched by a four-star general's insignia writ large as an appliqué.

Yohji's latest Adidas collaboration registered in sneakers decorated with artist Taishi Hayashi's colorful interpretations of a tiger, eagle, wolf, and dragon, with tops to match. The decoration extended to an overstitched crimson spiral pattern on a navy coat. The final passage was all about trims, like passementerie on jackets and coats, or the great loops of leather that limned the hem of a huge purple trench and the collar of the shirt beneath. What was the significance of these insectoid protuberances? "Gothic," said Yamamoto cryptically, pointing to a small blue dot woven into the lapel of his jacket. Well, if you say so, Yohji.

— Tim Blanks