CHINA: Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto holds a one-off fashion show in Beijing's Forbidden City

Record ID: 196646

  • Title: CHINA: Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto holds a one-off fashion show in Beijing's Forbidden City
  • Date: 26th April 2008
  • Summary: MODELS ON THE CATWALK / AUDIENCE
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Fashion
  • Reuters ID: LVA2L801D7X7IM4FNQCCKMVMKGNL
  • Story Text: Beijing's Forbidden City plays host to a special fashion show by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, who hopes to boost the Chinese fashion scene by later auctioning the one-of-a-kind designs to raise funds for China's young designers.
    Avant garde designer Yohji Yamamoto on Thursday (April 24) proved there are few boundaries for fashion, holding a catwalk show in Beijing's Forbidden City.
    The Japanese, French-based designer personally directed and presented the Y's fashion show at the World Heritage Site.
    An entire cast of models was flown into Beijing to present the collection of around 60 looks for men and women.
    The event was organised by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and UNESCO.
    It was the second big fashion show at a famous Beijing landmark in six months. In October last year Italian luxury brand Fendi held a much-hyped catwalk show on a section of the Great Wall of China.
    The show, titled "Y's", featured an Autumn/Winter collection specially designed for the event. Each piece was said to be unique and one-of-a-kind.
    Yamamoto stuck to his trademark black, however introducing some colourful features. The show was charged with attitude with models, dressed in leather booths and gloves, brushing shoulders aggressively on the catwalk.
    In addition to the biker-chic look, oversized sweaters and baggy trousers, Yamamoto dressed his models in wool and tweed, combining tailored jackets with loose skirts and trousers. The collection also included large head pieces.
    Speaking to Reuters TV after the show, the designer said it had not been an easy task for him.
    "It was kind of tough. Because I have a new type of audience, and this Forbidden City, forbidden area and this is not a usual Paris collection so I needed, I wanted to show my very basic emotion," he said.
    The garments will be auctioned on Saturday (April 26) at the Chinese capital's landmark Beijing Hotel to raise funds for the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace. The fund aims to give a boost to upcoming Chinese designers.
    Yamomoto was also honoured to be invited into China, not as a business man but as an artist.
    "I am the first fashion designer to be invited by the Chinese government as a cultural person, as an artist, and it is a great honour. In Japan the fashion culture is at a low level at the moment so I am grateful that they invited me as an artist, " he said.
    Yamamoto will also launch annual fashion design selection, sponsoring a Chinese designer to participate in a two-year education programme in Japan or Europe. A Chinese model from an annual competition will also be sponsored to debut at Paris Fashion Week.
    Yamamoto's Y's collection is currently sold in multi-brand stores in Shanghai and Beijing, with plans for stand-alone stores to be opened in the next year. The company expect to open some 12 boutiques in China by 2010, but whilst Yamamoto recognised the potential of the Chinese market he said he was "planning to go slowly".
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