Talking about the Yohji Yamamoto consumer

Talking about the Yohji consumer

Yamamoto has been a brand that has turned heads and created against the norm for decades now and has built up a strong almost cult like following, that appreciates and consumes its works and wears as a devotion to Yamamoto’s art. His style is easy to recognise and his ready to wear pieces are very unique, this was said about his fashion creations “Yamamoto’s signature aesthetic, which hinged on all-black, body-engulfing designs, put a new spin on tailoring and stood out among the cinched waists, shoulder pads and bold block colours that ruled the 1980s fashion scene.” (Bannerman, 2018). This notion gave Yohji an audience and a following from his beginning works.

The way Yohji produces his collections in a conceptual and avant-garde way, with the pricing of luxury fashion also, this makes his consumer a more up-market and fashion knowledgeable person, investing in pieces that last the test of time and don’t tend to lend to trends or seasons as such. This creates a timeless aspect and I think this can be heavily supported by digital fashion, creating pieces that can be organic and have those Yohji like flowing and loose materials and textures.

But where does this fit in to a newer consumer? A digital consumer? Something that Yohji did in 2003, was start a long and eye-opening collaboration with Adidas and I quote “It’s the perfect blend of style and function, and, as one of the first cult sportswear lines on the market, it elevated streetwear style while contributing to the rise in sneaker popularity,” (Bannerman, 2018). This shows a certain angle that I think can be utilised, similarly to the likes of The North Face and Gucci or Nike and Off-White, the idea of something like ‘bridge marketing’, this is where a high end brand like Yohji Yamamoto, collaborates with Adidas and uses this to create a connection with the lower market level consumer, helping them cross said bridge in to the higher end of fashion.

Travelling in to the new generation and in to digital fashion, we can look at creating content that keeps to Yohji’s style and aesthetic, for example, creating a flowing and long line Japanese piece, but in a digital space, it can turned in to something similar to a Fabricant piece, that is within an augmented reality filter, but is then posted on to a model on a runway or within a lookbook. I think something that many fashion houses do, that keep high value and shows a more thought out and high production approach is that of a fashion film, or a series of content that has high production value. Yohji isn’t one for social media and Tiktok, their social medias, in my opinion are very ‘there for the sake of having to have them’ which is okay, but I think there is a real space for Yohji to move in to the digital space. There are many, many videos on Tiktok looking and idolising Yohji himself as well as his fashion, looking at the content creators making these videos as well, a younger audience also exists for this, as vintage and reuse fashion is a massive trend at the moment, we can use this market to push for an upcycled or reinvigorated Yamamoto style.