Yohji Yamamoto and Azzedine Alaia belong to that rarefied circle of fashion visionaries, purveyors not only of the most sublimely beautiful clothes but also of the most liberating ideas about fashion and its place in the scheme of things. Their words, indeed, are vital to the fashion discourse. A unique magazine called A (the second, and current, issue guest-curated by Yamamoto) captures the "two alchemists of the black" in an edifying conversation that should inspire everyone who thinks that fashion is art and a way of life. Following are excepts from the conversation:
The Square of the Circle
Yohji Yamamoto: Fashion consists of both commerce and recreation. You need to find the right balance, if not you cannot continue. Though I will always defend a very pure creation, I should not forget that I am responsible for the jobs of the five hundred people working for Yohji Yamamoto. I am part of a minority that buys the fabric, creates clothes and sells them. If I was very well-known and a maison d’accessoires ordered objects from me, it would be easier. The difficult part is to preserve. The independent couturier is like a fossil.
Azzedine Alaia: I love my profession, not its obligations. Working to create turnover, that blocks me.
The Big Art
YY: Showing something simple like a shirt, and make sure that it’s different from the others. See to it that the way a draped gown falls is determined by the woman who wears it. Like the movements of the sand in the desert.
AA: In black one doesn’t notice all the cuts , but they do have a meaning.
Questions of Style
YY: Confronted with a garment, I react somehow like an animal. It is more instinctive than cerebral. I sing the same song, even if the melody is different every time. We are "obsessions designers."
AA: It is not a matter of changing from one season to the next. It is an ongoing work, one cannot abandon it.
Body Hidden, Body Revealed
YY: I prefer to show the hidden body. I’m a man but I think that what is on the inside is the sexiest.
If this season I have suggested a symbolic body by using pleats and tucks to indicate the figure, the bosom, the side, the back, it is because I don’t like to show the body ostentatiously. I prefer to dream. In Japan, all the girls wear low-slung trousers. When I see how important the body has become, the triumph of cosmetics and plastic surgery, I wonder if clothes are still necessary.
AA: People pay more and more attention to themselves, to what they eat. The more interesting the body becomes, the closer I get to the skin.
Past Present
YY: I have a lot of respect for the past. I never erase it.
AA: I don’t think that young designers can make progress if they don’t admire, if they don’t know what has been before them.
Red Passion
YY: Red isn’t a color, it’s a light.
AA: There are reds, violet reds. Red is another black. I never get bored of it.
The Future Softly
YY: With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.
AA: Every morning I ask myself : "What will I learn today?". I don’t make plans. I live by the day. I’m in good shape or I’m not.
