Yohji Yamamoto Quotes & Sayings

I feel like I have become a living fossil in the fashion world. Without even noticing it, in my own collection I have moved away from the street style. — Yohji Yamamoto

Fashion sighs after trends. I want timeless elegance.
Fashion has no time. I do. I say: Hello Lady, how can I help you?
Fashion has no time to even ask such a question, because it is constantly concerned with finding out: What will come next?
It is more about helping women to suffer less, to attain more freedom and independence. — Yohji Yamamoto

Colour disturbs people. I am confident in black, not in light. This dark side of life is attractive to me forever and from the beginning. I am a lazy designer when it comes to colour. — Yohji Yamamoto

I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion. — Yohji Yamamoto

For me, a woman who is absorbed in her work, who does not care about gaining one's favour, strong yet subtle at the same time, is essentially more seductive. The more she hides and abandons her femininity, the more it emerges from the very heart of her existence. — Yohji Yamamoto

I exist here, now. I'm not much interested in the future. Or, more precisely put, I do not believe in the future. To exaggerate a little, I have no faith that I will still exist tomorrow or the day after. What is more, I absolutely detest retrospection. That dislike is balances only by my desire to make my way back home as quickly as possible. — Yohji Yamamoto

Fashion is only complete when it is worn by ordinary people who exist now, managing their lives, loving and grieving. — Yohji Yamamoto

Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don't bother you - don't bother me". — Yohji Yamamoto

Beautiful things are disappearing every day. — Yohji Yamamoto

I'm going to create a very strong scent which can kill a boy! — Yohji Yamamoto

There is also a schedule to fashion - the deadline is always set. So maybe the fashion business is a good business for me in that way because I'm basically lazy, man. — Yohji Yamamoto

With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future. — Yohji Yamamoto

People have started wasting fashion — Yohji Yamamoto

You can say that designing is quite easy; the difficulty lies in finding a new way to explore beauty — Yohji Yamamoto

If you feel strongly about someone, go up to them. Pursue what you want in life. Why be shy about something like that? — Yohji Yamamoto

Fashion cannot make you sexy. Experience makes you sexy. Imagination makes people sexy. You have to train yourself, you have to study, and you have to live your life. — Yohji Yamamoto

I don't think we should try to make space our own. I believe that as modern people we should live in mobility. We should always be moving. — Yohji Yamamoto

I want to achieve anti-fashion through fashion. That's why I'm always heading in my own direction, in parallel to fashion. — Yohji Yamamoto

My role in all of this is very simple. I make clothing like armor. My clothing protects you from unwelcome eyes. — Yohji Yamamoto

In order to create an image almost similar to that of a pencil case standing up and walking, I try to eliminate all excess by cutting. I have the feeling that this process (of "cutting off") is linked in some way to "elegance". Elegance and so-called "eliminating excess", or the beauty that remains after excess has beeen eliminated ... — Yohji Yamamoto

I believe that there are three conditions to a woman's beauty. First, you must realize that not all women are beautiful all of the time. Sometimes beauty comes on a subconscious level. When she is in love, or has met someone new and exciting, she shines. Second, you must understand that life is unfair. Beauty is something that, for some, must be worked at. The third condition is luck. Some women can just be lucky. — Yohji Yamamoto

At a certain point, I stopped seeing my clothing worn by people on the streets ... It seemed like they were being treated as museum items. — Yohji Yamamoto

A beautiful flower does not exist. There's only a moment when a flower looks beautiful. — Yohji Yamamoto

Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself. — Yohji Yamamoto

I was on a Japanese designers' pedestal - considered a maestro. My design was getting closer to a couturier's work, and I felt like I was missing something. — Yohji Yamamoto

Men's clothing is more pure in design. It's more simple and has no decoration. Women want that. When I started designing, I wanted to make men's clothes for women. But there were no buyers for it. Now there are. I always wonder who decided that there should be a difference in the clothes of men and women. Perhaps men decided this. — Yohji Yamamoto

Adidas is a very personal inspiration to me. It has enriched my creative life. It's an exchange between different cultures, different ideas, and most of all, it is teamwork. — Yohji Yamamoto

I have no imagination about holidays, vacations, or retiring life. I can't imagine about those things. — Yohji Yamamoto

A pair of brilliantly cut cotton trousers can be more beautiful than a gorgeous silk gown ... — Yohji Yamamoto

To be modern is to tear the soul out of every thing — Yohji Yamamoto

The best moments in my life are just before going to bed. Those are my happiest moments. — Yohji Yamamoto

Just listen to the material. What is it going to say? Just wait. Probably the material will tell you something. — Yohji Yamamoto

Dirty, stained, withered, broken things seem beautiful to me. — Yohji Yamamoto

Generally speaking, I am not interested in the future and don't believe in it. First, I guess it is true that I don't trust the future, but, more to the point, I don't even trust the "myself" of tomorrow, nor, for that matter, of the day after. Basically, all I know, and all I am capable of understanding, is the "me" that is here, now, the "me" that has dragged his past with him to this point. — Yohji Yamamoto

I always want to have a new challenge involved. I need to put myself to the test, and if I make mistakes, it doesn't matter. What matters to me, instead, is making my dreams come true and putting them on display. — Yohji Yamamoto

The more we possess, the more distant we grow from God. — Yohji Yamamoto

I hate fashion. Or the word fashion, which sounds colorful, extravagant, expensive and gorgeous. I never wanted to walk the main street of fashion. I have been walking the sidewalks of fashion from the beginning, so I'm a bit dark. — Yohji Yamamoto