The late designer, Kansai Yamamoto, on dealing with David Bowie

Recently, we lost renowned progressive fashion designer, Kansai Yamamoto. Yamamoto is best known for this long-lasting cooperation with David Bowie, particularly the costumes for the Martian rocker’s Ziggy Stardust tour.

On the Fashion United site, there’s a piece about the 2018 Brooklyn Museum night with Yamamoto, done in assistance of the David Bowie Is show.

Here, Yamamoto describes his cooperation with Bowie:

” Unlike me, Bowie was peaceful, shy, however on stage he flips a switch and becomes David Bowie,” states Yamamoto. “Me, I’m always that way.” They shared a love of what the designer calls “extreme appearance,” and when asked what they learned from each other, he replies that through Bowie he established his understanding of Western dress while he assisted Bowie analyze Eastern clothes. He agrees that he sees a direct line in between what he developed in the 70 s for Bowie and the existing conversation on gender and dress. “I approached Bowie’s clothes as if I was creating for a female,” he confesses. “Notice there is no zipper in front.” He feels proud seeing how the younger generation going to the “David Bowie Is” exhibit can express themselves when compared to the social limitations he experienced in Japan 50 years ago, as a self-taught, broke, designer releasing his profession at the age of21 A professional photographer had snapped an image of him strolling along London’s Kings Roadway and it was featured on the cover of Life publication. “I felt every day I was the design in a style program and everyone around me were members of the audience,” he states. “There were sometimes, people took a look at me odd.”

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Images: FashionUnited and FaceMePLS (CC BY 2.0)