If there was any doubt about Yohji Yamamoto's fan base in his home country of Japan, it was definitely eradicated Thursday night. More than 3,000 people packed into a former Olympic stadium in Tokyo to take in his celebrity-studded men's show.
The show proved to be a reciprocal act of admiration between an iconic designer and his legion of followers, which ran the gamut from businessmen in suits to avant-garde artist types.
Backstage, Yamamoto said he wanted to pay tribute to his home country because he hadn't staged a fashion show there in almost 20 years. In turn, his fans showed their support for the 66-year-old designer just months after his company filed for bankruptcy protection. (Japanese private equity fund Integral Corp. has since taken over the business to restructure it.)
"Well Yohji's back, very simply," Yoshihiro Hemmi, the chairman of the fashion house, told me.
He said the show actually accomplished two things: It demonstrated how many people of all ages still identify with the designer and it also helped boost employee morale -- not a bad thing for a company emerging from financial collapse.
The show proved to be a reciprocal act of admiration between an iconic designer and his legion of followers, which ran the gamut from businessmen in suits to avant-garde artist types.
Backstage, Yamamoto said he wanted to pay tribute to his home country because he hadn't staged a fashion show there in almost 20 years. In turn, his fans showed their support for the 66-year-old designer just months after his company filed for bankruptcy protection. (Japanese private equity fund Integral Corp. has since taken over the business to restructure it.)
"Well Yohji's back, very simply," Yoshihiro Hemmi, the chairman of the fashion house, told me.
He said the show actually accomplished two things: It demonstrated how many people of all ages still identify with the designer and it also helped boost employee morale -- not a bad thing for a company emerging from financial collapse.
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