Yohji Yamamoto is living on his own terms

What it means to be "stylish" depends on who you talk to.

He was a creator in the true sense, bringing new ideas and sensibility to life; it’s rare to do that over so many decades. His legacy is still undigested because he kept reinventing himself. He responded to what he saw around him and worked with the new materials and technologies introduced during his lifetime. With some historical references only ... See more

“We should not forget that maybe not everybody only wants a camel cashmere turtleneck,” Olivier Rousteing remarked. Beyond the cyclical nature of fashion, Rousteing’s observation captured a mash-up of trends that has been solidifying into a durable aesthetic.

We can have sympathy for the dandies. To live, as many of them did, in a rapidly changing, ever-industrializing Paris, where alleyways and artisans were constantly being supplanted by grands boulevards and department stores, must have been disorienting; the ease of technological reproduction at once dazzling and destabilizing. A whole host of liter... See more

There’s a modern phenomenon whereby personal style—on the body, in the home—is understood as a separate track of identity. It’s a mode of expression we’re meant to perfect through mimetic desire and buying the right stuff. I’m thinking, for instance, of dressing like a “coastal grandma,” without otherwise inhabiting the relevant lifestyle choices. ... See more