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Running alongside the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum are two further odes to the designer curated by The Wapping Project.
Who? Yohji Yamamoto, the revolutionary Japanese fashion designer who challenged traditional views on fashion, ignoring trends in favour of a more directional and progressive route.
What? Running alongside the Yohji Yamamoto retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum are two further odes to the designer curated by The Wapping Project. Whilst the Yohji’s Women exhibition showcases some of Yamamoto’s key collaborations captured by photographers including Nick Knight, Inez & Vinoodh, Peter Lindbergh and Max Vadukul, an installation Making Waves allows visitors to get up close and personal with the striking white silk wedding dress taken from the designer's autumn/winter 1998 collection.
Why? Though the overall thread running through the two exhibitions focuses on the mystery and elegance Yamamoto saw and sought to highlight in traditional Japanese wear, the work on show in each space is vastly different. Already suggested in the title, through a selection of photographs, Yohji’s Women focuses on the designer’s curiosity with unconventional women, valuing eccentric and androgynous aesthetics over traditional ideas of femininity. Images of which have been taken by now established photographers whose work stemmed from Yamamoto’s visionary influence since the brand began 30 years ago.
Making Waves invites visitors to take a moment to reflect. Occupying the sparse Boiler House of the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Yamamoto’s wedding dress turned installation is held up by metal tanks, which make up the roof of the space and allow the design to drape down over a further bottomless tank of water. Light bulbs have been set up to produce a wave every ten minutes, which ripples past the dress, representing the way Yamamoto shook up and transformed western design.
Yohji's Women at The Wapping Project Bankside runs until 14 May. Yohji Making Waves at The Wapping Project also runs until 14 May. A retrospective exhibition celebrating the work of Yohji Yamamoto is at the V&A until 10 July, 2011.
Text by Fiona Cook
