10·Corso·Como presents
From the 16th of May to the 31st of July, Yohji Yamamoto. Letter to the future at 10·Corso·Como Gallery marks a new chapter in the gallery’s cultural program, according to the vision of Tiziana Fausti. Focusing on fashion culture which intersects aesthetics and imagination, the twenty-five garments compose, like calligraphy, a letter to the future: an imaginative statement that cuts through the space in a procession, realised as a single installation.
Organized by 10·Corso·Como e Yohji Yamamoto and curated by Alessio de’ Navasques – curator and lecturer of the Fashion Archives at The Sapienza University in Rome – the exhibition consists of Yohji Yamamoto Collection archival pieces from different eras and collections between 1986 and 2024. They mark the chapters of a missive directed towards the future, defining the designer’s ambivalent and poetic relationship with time, in an asynchronous flow of forms, asymmetries, and materials. It is difficult to differentiate garments and collections in their ability to always be contemporary and timeless: indeed, the distinctive feature of the designer’s work is his radical ability to disassemble and reassemble archetypes, giving his own personal vision of the present, past, and future.
“After major retrospectives like the one at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2011, it is an honor to have the unique opportunity to host a project by Yohji Yamamoto that is forward-looking, vibrant on the contemporary, dedicated to the younger generation. Yohji Yamamoto returns to Italy after almost two decades and it is significant for us that he is in Milan and precisely in 10 Corso Como, where he was one of the seminal authors in defining its avant-garde and research identity.” says Tiziana Fausti.
The garments are displayed, without scenic artifice, on tailoring busts similar to those on which they came to life in the atelier: thus begins a journey of communications between his reflections on the sense of the future – written on the wall – and a selection of archival pieces, demonstrating his relationship between body and garment in overcoming the dimension of time. Imagining the timeline of his creative process, time that enriches materials with patina, making them perfect, and the time when his garments will be worn: a sensation that melts into the colour black, a cosmic hue, which defines that “silhouette of everything.” In his volumes, there no longer seem to be a beginning or an end because the air circulates between the body and the fabric, and the garment seems to breathe without the constraints of a predefined form.
Historical elements of Western fashion such as the iconic faux-cul, red silk coat from Winter 1986-87, whose unique silhouette was immortalized in Nick Knight’s shots under the artistic direction of Marc Ascoli echoes its future form in one of the majestic looks that closed the runway show last March in Paris: a grey wool coat, whose tail will softly move on the wearer’s body only next winter. Aligning pieces from different collections, from Autumn/Winter 1996-97, where felt becomes origami, to the performance show of Spring 1999 where models freed themselves from crinolines, veils, and layers of fabric, revealing the very essence of form, to the three-dimensional robe manteaus in Winter 2023-24, and many others. The journey focuses on Yohji Yamamoto’s search for a universal silhouette, in a continuous, rigorous reflection on the relationship between body and garment. The designer’s insistence on a concept of welcoming imperfection in every form, the experimentation with volumes and fabrics – worked or left to fall, draped or sculptural – are recurring trademarks that have revolutionized the relationship between garment and person, as a universal message of timeless freedom that looks to the future.
“It has been an honor for me to work with one of the most extraordinary creators that fashion can boast,” says curator Alessio de’ Navasques. “Yohji Yamamoto combines a sense of Zen spirituality with the carnal and dramatic power of form. From his arrival in Paris in the early eighties to today, his message is still vital and very powerful. We are witnessing a historic moment in which, just as happened in his debut years in Europe, physicality seems to have freed itself from superstructures and gender stereotypes, yet we are overexposed, and continually judged, as happens on social media. Yohji Yamamoto’s message is instead that of the body acting on the garment, through its imperfect and welcoming forms, which encompasses every type of body and spirit.”
Thanks to 10·Corso·Como’s new project – a place of dialogue between different arts and a meeting point for new experiences – the innovative cultural program, envisioned by Tiziana Fausti, brings to Italy for the first time a special exhibition by the emblematic designer and poet of black, Yohji Yamamoto.
Yohji Yamamoto. Letter to the Future.
Curated by Alessio de′ Navasques
10·Corso·Como Gallery
16.5 – 31.7.2024
Everyday: 10.30am – 7.30pm
Free Admission
