When I wrote and designed this article about Kansai Yamamoto, my favorite fashion designer and the man behind David Bowie's most iconic looks, I didn't imagine he would pass away only 3 years later. Another creative genius, ahead of his time, gone too soon. His impact on fashion will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, Kansai Yamamoto.
Below is the text in the article:
Kansai Yamamoto is the iconic fashion designer who created the out-of-this-world outfits of David Bowie’s legendary alien Rockstar alter ego Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. He helped shape the seventies glam style with his groundbreaking avant-garde creations. His creations are characterized by vivid colors, dramatic silhouettes and allusions to traditional Japanese aesthetics and culture. FASHION! TURN TO THE LEFT>
Born in 1944 and raised in Yokohama, Yamamoto studied English and civil engineering at Nippon University and then trained at the Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo. In 1971 the Tokyo fashion house Kansai Yamamoto Company Ltd was founded and his first collection was presented the same year in London. He was the first Japanese designer to have a fashion show in the British capital. He debuted in Paris 1975 and opened his Paris Kansai Boutique in 1977, and was awarded the Tokyo Fashion Editors award the same year.
SOME CAT FROM JAPAN
Kansai’s creations have, in his own words, a “Japanese beauty”. In 2014 he explained
to Vice: “Why was Andy Warhol obsessed with canned food? It’s the same with me, but I’m going after Japanese themes. Every artist has his own thing going on. I often use Japanese motifs and sometimes wonder if I’m choosing them because I’m Japanese.” “The Kansai Yamamoto costume designs that Kansai and I chose for the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane tours contributed significantly to pushing away from the sixties and for creating new sensibilities for the post-modern seventies. Kansai’s brave ideas brought Japanese clothes design to the forefront of fashion.” Bowie said in 2008.
Kansai’s work is heavily influenced by the Japanese concept of “basara”, which is about embracing the bold, colorful and flamboyant – the direct opposite of the Japanese “wabi-sabi” aesthetic which advocates asymmetry, simplicity and modesty. Kansai’s eye-popping creations were soon to catch David Bowie’s eye.
WATCH THAT MAN
Bowie first saw Kansai’s designs in London 1971 and decided to wear them on stage. In 2013 Kansai told the Telegraph how he came in contact with Bowie. A friend of Kansai had called him several times in the middle of the night urging him to fly immediately to New York to see “a very interesting person called David Bowie”. “If someone calls at 4am telling you to get on a plane, it must be for something pretty interesting. So I had my secretary cancel all my plans for that week, and I went to New York.” “I went straight from JFK airport to the Radio City Music Hall, and was shown to the front row just as the show was about to start. I’d never seen a performance like it. Bowie came down from the ceiling, wearing my clothes. My designs have been influenced by kabuki theatre, as was his show.” Up till then Kansai did not know who David Bowie was.
NOT SURE IF YOU’RE A BOY OR A GIRL
In an interview with Vice, Kansai said he remembers “thinking ‘whoah’” when he saw Bowie wearing clothes that he had originally designed for women. Bowie’s androgynous beauty suited Kansai Yamamoto’s style perfectly. ”He was someone who knew how to express himself both with music and with fashion,” he told the BBC. He has said that there was something that resonated between them, “something that went beyond nationalities, beyond gender”, that Bowie “broke one sexual taboo after another” and that “What he did in terms of bridging the male-female gap continues to this day”. Something Kansai’s flashy, unconventional designs greatly contributed to.
“I’VE NEVER GONE FOR WABI-SABI - THE AUSTERE ELEGANCE THAT PEOPLE ADMIRE ABOUT JAPAN. I LIKE BRIGHT COLOURS, AND I LIKE TO STAND OUT IN A CROWD.”
AND THE PAPERS WANT TO KNOW WHOSE SHIRTS YOU WEAR
“To me, it was the beginning of a new age. [...] I felt we had the same energy. I’ve never gone for wabi-sabi - the austere elegance that people admire about Japan. I like bright colours, and I like to stand out in a crowd. So I had real empathy with Bowie. He’s from the West, I’m from the East, but we had the same crazy energy in our hearts. We inspired each other, and pushed each other to another level.”, as Kansai said to the Telegraph. When interviewed by the Hollywood reporter in 2016 he said ”Some sort of chemical reaction took place: My clothes became part of David, his songs and his music. They became part of the message he delivered to the world”.
Mockup image: https://www.freepik.com/psd/flower">Flower psd created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com
Below is the text in the article:
Kansai Yamamoto is the iconic fashion designer who created the out-of-this-world outfits of David Bowie’s legendary alien Rockstar alter ego Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. He helped shape the seventies glam style with his groundbreaking avant-garde creations. His creations are characterized by vivid colors, dramatic silhouettes and allusions to traditional Japanese aesthetics and culture. FASHION! TURN TO THE LEFT>
Born in 1944 and raised in Yokohama, Yamamoto studied English and civil engineering at Nippon University and then trained at the Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo. In 1971 the Tokyo fashion house Kansai Yamamoto Company Ltd was founded and his first collection was presented the same year in London. He was the first Japanese designer to have a fashion show in the British capital. He debuted in Paris 1975 and opened his Paris Kansai Boutique in 1977, and was awarded the Tokyo Fashion Editors award the same year.
SOME CAT FROM JAPAN
Kansai’s creations have, in his own words, a “Japanese beauty”. In 2014 he explained
to Vice: “Why was Andy Warhol obsessed with canned food? It’s the same with me, but I’m going after Japanese themes. Every artist has his own thing going on. I often use Japanese motifs and sometimes wonder if I’m choosing them because I’m Japanese.” “The Kansai Yamamoto costume designs that Kansai and I chose for the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane tours contributed significantly to pushing away from the sixties and for creating new sensibilities for the post-modern seventies. Kansai’s brave ideas brought Japanese clothes design to the forefront of fashion.” Bowie said in 2008.
Kansai’s work is heavily influenced by the Japanese concept of “basara”, which is about embracing the bold, colorful and flamboyant – the direct opposite of the Japanese “wabi-sabi” aesthetic which advocates asymmetry, simplicity and modesty. Kansai’s eye-popping creations were soon to catch David Bowie’s eye.
WATCH THAT MAN
Bowie first saw Kansai’s designs in London 1971 and decided to wear them on stage. In 2013 Kansai told the Telegraph how he came in contact with Bowie. A friend of Kansai had called him several times in the middle of the night urging him to fly immediately to New York to see “a very interesting person called David Bowie”. “If someone calls at 4am telling you to get on a plane, it must be for something pretty interesting. So I had my secretary cancel all my plans for that week, and I went to New York.” “I went straight from JFK airport to the Radio City Music Hall, and was shown to the front row just as the show was about to start. I’d never seen a performance like it. Bowie came down from the ceiling, wearing my clothes. My designs have been influenced by kabuki theatre, as was his show.” Up till then Kansai did not know who David Bowie was.
NOT SURE IF YOU’RE A BOY OR A GIRL
In an interview with Vice, Kansai said he remembers “thinking ‘whoah’” when he saw Bowie wearing clothes that he had originally designed for women. Bowie’s androgynous beauty suited Kansai Yamamoto’s style perfectly. ”He was someone who knew how to express himself both with music and with fashion,” he told the BBC. He has said that there was something that resonated between them, “something that went beyond nationalities, beyond gender”, that Bowie “broke one sexual taboo after another” and that “What he did in terms of bridging the male-female gap continues to this day”. Something Kansai’s flashy, unconventional designs greatly contributed to.
“I’VE NEVER GONE FOR WABI-SABI - THE AUSTERE ELEGANCE THAT PEOPLE ADMIRE ABOUT JAPAN. I LIKE BRIGHT COLOURS, AND I LIKE TO STAND OUT IN A CROWD.”
AND THE PAPERS WANT TO KNOW WHOSE SHIRTS YOU WEAR
“To me, it was the beginning of a new age. [...] I felt we had the same energy. I’ve never gone for wabi-sabi - the austere elegance that people admire about Japan. I like bright colours, and I like to stand out in a crowd. So I had real empathy with Bowie. He’s from the West, I’m from the East, but we had the same crazy energy in our hearts. We inspired each other, and pushed each other to another level.”, as Kansai said to the Telegraph. When interviewed by the Hollywood reporter in 2016 he said ”Some sort of chemical reaction took place: My clothes became part of David, his songs and his music. They became part of the message he delivered to the world”.
Mockup image: https://www.freepik.com/psd/flower">Flower psd created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com
