Yohji Yamamoto on His Drawings: “I Didn’t Want to Speak”

Hundreds of drawings by Yohji Yamamoto have been brought to light in a remarkable new book. Here, the designer reflects on his creative process and the anger that has never left him

So the story begins: in May 2024, hundreds of sheets of paper were discovered in a Tokyo warehouse, initially mistaken for ordinary paperwork. They were in fact original drawings by Yohji Yamamoto, dating back to his Paris debut in 1981 through to 1999, drawn to communicate his ideas to the pattern cutters who would make them clothes. There are figures that slump over, coats that seem to catch fire, ideas of dresses conjured with a handful of marks. Most have never been seen publicly. Selected by Yamamoto with fashion curator Alexandre Samson, his daughter Limi and close collaborators, with design support from Peter Saville, they make visible a part of his working life long kept private. Now, we glimpse these sketches for the first time, in a book – Yohji Yamamoto Drawings – published by Thames & Hudson. 

Yamamoto’s clothes look formidable. On a hanger, a black coat might resemble the folded wings of a bird of prey, a jacket some strange instrument or weapon. His silhouettes can seem almost impossible to decipher, their proportions exaggerated and their absence of colour absolute. But to wear them is another matter entirely. The fabric softens, the shape settles and something that appeared so uncompromising becomes enveloping, flattering, even practical. I have never met Yohji-san – not many people have – but I have worn his clothes, and I know that the outward severity is only half the story.

Born in Tokyo in 1943, Yamamoto lost his father to the Second World War. His mother, Fumi, wore black in mourning for the husband she had lost and worked as a dressmaker to support them both. The image of her bent over her sewing has stayed with him. He studied law before turning to fashion, and in 1981 brought his work to Paris, where an amplified heartbeat accompanied models in voluminous black clothes, some punctured with holes. The response was sometimes vicious. Yet in an era of fashion that displayed, tightened and controlled, he offered women something close to freedom.

Which brings us back to the book – Samson recounts Yamamoto referring to them as “just drawings”. They were not intended as art objects, but as a way to communicate with the patternmakers. Often he found it easier to draw than to speak. The lines are as restless and expressive as the finished garments are composed. Looking at them again, even their maker was taken aback. “What a creative dessin I did,” he tells AnOther. “Now, I can’t draw it.”

The temptation with a book like this is to regard it as a monument, to look back on 45 years of influence and declare the work complete. Yamamoto, now 83, has a different reason for opening the boxes. He hopes the drawings might offer “inspiration, hope, freedom” to a younger generation. The anger he felt as a child, he tells me, has never left him – it appears nor has his desire to make something meaningful of it.

Over email, Yohji-san answers some questions about his book.

George Pistachio What do you remember about making these drawings? Did they help you express things you found difficult to say?

Yohji Yamamoto I used to draw for the patternmakers. For the womenswear collections, at that time I had three important patternmakers: Keiko-san and two others. I didn’t want to talk about my emotions, especially to important patternmakers. Not Keiko. She didn’t want to listen to my complicated philosophy. She feels, and because we are so close, she doesn’t need me to explain.

So, for a new collection, I thought I had to draw something for the other two patternmakers. It was a duty for me before the collection. When I started Y’s, when I began doing shows and decided to make ready-to-wear collections in Japan, Europe and the world, I suffered a lot, naturally. I didn’t want to explain myself by speaking to the patternmakers, for womenswear or menswear. I didn’t want to speak, so I used to draw. Very naturally, I started drawing dessins. It was a duty for the patternmakers a long time ago.

GP You have described a design sketch as a kind of “code” shared between the designer and the patternmaker. Does drawing still play that part in your work?

YY I cannot draw in the same way today, and I don’t use drawings anymore to communicate with my patternmakers.

“It was a long travel of misunderstanding – of my heart, my desire and my creative point of view. I didn’t want to speak, so I used to draw” – Yohji Yamamoto

GP What was it like to see these old drawings again after so many years? Did you recognise them?

YY When I rediscovered my old dessins here in Paris, very frankly, I was surprised. What a creative dessin I did. Now, I can’t draw it.

GP Are there things in these early drawings that you recognise as ideas you are still pursuing today?

YY I used to think about misunderstanding. It was a long travel of misunderstanding – of my heart, my desire and my creative point of view. I didn’t want to speak, so I used to draw.

GP The book begins with your first Paris collection in 1981. When you look back at yourself then, how much has changed?

YY Since my childhood, I have had the same anger. This has not changed. And since my first collection in Tokyo, my first show, until now, what I want to achieve with my creations, my goal, remains the same. This has not changed either.

GP When you begin a collection, what comes first – a silhouette, a feeling, a fabric or a drawing?

YY Definitely the fabric. The first moment I touch the fabric, I think about cutting. Touch is very important. Then come the pins, the scissors. I start by draping the fabric on a model or a mannequin. Fabric is the real start.

GP Can a garment ever surprise you by becoming very different from the drawing that began it?

YY Of course. In every fitting, every time, I am surprised. This is both excitement and pressure. My life is made of both – pressure and excitement.

GP Were there any drawings you deliberately decided not to include in the book?

YY There was no censorship. It all came very naturally.

GP After so many decades, what made you decide to let the public see these drawings now?

YY My wish is to give inspiration, hope, freedom to the young generation who is struggling. This is why I agreed to release these drawings and show them to the public.

Yohji Yamamoto Drawings is published by Thames & Hudson and is out now