Kansai Yamamoto (山本 寛斎), born on February 8, 1944 in Yokohama, Japan, is one of the leaders in Japanese Contemporary fashion, in particular during the 1970s and 1980s.
After studying civil engineering and English at Nippon University ,got a so-en prise at Bunka Fashion College in 1967 .
Among the designers with whom he apprenticed are Junko Koshino and Hisashi Hosono; in 1971, he opened his own company, Yamamoto Kansai Company, Ltd., Tokyo. His first collection debuted in London in 1971 and in the USA at Hess’s Department Store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which was renowned for many avant-garde collections. His 1975 debut in Paris was followed by the opening of his Kansai Boutique in 1977.
In 1999, he and Junko Koshino renewed the kimono, reviving interest in this classical fashion. He is also known for his avant-garde kimono designs, including ones worn by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust Tour.
In 2008, an exhibit named Netsuki Shinten: Kansai Genki Shugi (or Passionate Exhibit: The Energy Principle of Kansai) was held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum. In 2009, a major retrospective of Yamamoto’s work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Yamamoto designed the Skyliner train, unveiled in 2010, that connects Japan’s Narita Airport with central Tokyo.
In July 2013, he made a comeback to the fashion industry with a showing in the 19th New Britain Mask Festival in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea.
Harper’s Bazaar, July 1999 issue. Tom Cruise’s cover was the last cover approved by Liz before her death just 3 months prior. All ad revenue went to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Models, photographers, stylists, make-ups artists, etc., donated their time for free. There are no editorials. It is the one issue which features the solidarity of the fashion industry for an icon.
Illustrations by Karl Lagerfeld
Obituary by Cartier
Christy Turlington photographed by Patrick Demarchelier
Guinevere Van Seenus photographed by Craig McDean, clothes by Yohji Yamamoto
Naomi Campbell photographed by David Bailey clothes by Versace
Left: Linda Evangelista illustrated by Mats Gustafsson; Guinevere Van Seenus photographed by Richard Burbridge
Nikki Uberti photographed by Terry Richardson, clothes by Dolce and Gabbana
Anne Catherine Lacroix photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadinanne, clothes by Balenciaga
Erin O’Connor photographed by Patrick Demarchelier., clothes by Calvin Klein
Natalie Portman photographed by Robert Bromann, clothes by Moschino; Cindy Crawford photographed by Mary Ellen Mark, clothes by Malo; Rita Wilson photographed by Sante D’Orazio; Milla Jovovich photographed by Cliff Watts, clothes by Tommy Hilfiger
In 2003 Vogue UK did a photo-shoot by Nick Knight with Kate Moss styled in David Bowie’s old stage clothes. Red platform boots from the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ tour. The kimono top and shorts were done by Kansai Yamamoto, also in 1973
Supermodel Kate Moss was into vintage David Bowie as she wore one of his Ziggy Stardust outfits to collect a prize on his behalf at the Brit Awards 2014
The catwalk star was on hand for the ceremony because David Bowie, 67, chose to stay at home in New York rather than attend the event to pick up his best British male award – his first Brit for 18 years.
Moss arrived secretly, avoiding the red carpet, to surprise guests at the event. And when she arrived on stage, the 40-year-old model was wearing an outfit which Bowie himself made famous at one of the most celebrated stages of his career.
He originally donned the leotard-style garment while appearing at London’s Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park on August 19, 1972.
The costume, called Woodland Creatures but popularly known as his ‘rabbit costume’ was designed by Kansai Yamamoto
Noel Gallagher announced Bowie – who made a comeback after a ten-year absence – had taken the prize
The ex-Oasis star said: ‘You maniacs didn’t think David Bowie was actually going to be here? David Bowie’s too cool for that – he doesn’t do this s***.
‘David Bowie has sent his representative on earth. The one and only Kate Moss is going to receive this award on his behalf.’
Moss said: ‘Good evening ladies and gentleman, David has asked me to say this.
‘In Japanese myth the rabbits from my old costume that Kate’s wearing live on the moon.
‘Kate comes from Venus and I from Mars, so that’s nice. I’m completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male, but I am, aren’t I Kate? I think it’s a great way to end the day.
‘Thank you very, very much and Scotland – stay with us’.
Bowie previously won the prize 30 years ago, after his comeback last year with album The Next Day, following an absence of 10 years.
The only other win he has notched up during his long career was an honorary title in 1996 for his outstanding contribution to music.
The 67-year-old music legend is now the oldest recipient of a Brit Award, taking over from Sir Tom Jones, who was given an honorary prize for his outstanding contribution to music in 2003 when he was 62.
Moss and Bowie have had an association for a number of years, with the model interviewing Bowie for Q magazine more than a decade ago, also posing for a cover shoot together.
Bowie returned to the music world early last year surprising his fans by coming out of what had appeared to be retirement, releasing his album The Next Day after a ten-year recording silence.
Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane silver skull and leather necklace
Yohji Yamamoto 1995-1996 Ad campaign photographed by David Sims
Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2010 eyewear advertising
Christian Dior Haute Couture by John Galliano. Autumn-Winter 2000
Iris van Herpen Capriole Haute Couture AW11
Dsquared2 Fall 2010
Reveal The Inner Self, collection of Taiwanese designer Wei Ting Liang for her 3rd year final project, at the Ecole de la Chambre Synidcale de la Couture Parisenne
Jean Paul Gaultier, Fall Winter Couture collection 2006-2007
Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show, 2011
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Fall/Winter 20011-2012
White cotton jacket printed all over with dotted grey skulls wearing light blue sunglasses by Comme Des Garcons Homme Plus, Spring-Summer 2011
Narciso Rodriguez’s sketch-books
Vans skulls slip-on shoes
Christian Audigier, French fashion designer and entrepreneur
Vivienne Westwood
GIACOMO LEOPARDI DIALOGUE BETWEEN FASHION AND DEATH
A CHAPTER FROM OPERA OMNIA (1824)
Translated by Charles Edwardes
FASHION — Madam Death, Madam Death!
DEATH — Wait until your time comes, and then I will appear without being called by you.
FASHION — Madam Death!
DEATH — Go to the devil. I will come when you least expect me.
FASHION — As if I were not immortal!
DEATH — Immortal?
“Already has passed the thousandth year,”
since the age of immortals ended.
FASHION — Madam is as much a Petrarchist as if she were an Italian poet of the fifteenth or eighteenth century.
DEATH — I like Petrarch because he composed my triumph, and because he refers so often to me. But I must be moving.
FASHION — Stay! For the love you bear to the seven cardinal sins, stop a moment and look at me.
DEATH — Well. I am looking.
FASHION — Do you not recognise me?
DEATH — You must know that I have bad sight, and am without spectacles. The English make none to suit me; and if they did, I should not know where to put them.
FASHION — I am Fashion, your sister.
DEATH — My sister?
FASHION — Yes. Do you not remember we are both born of Decay?
DEATH — As if I, who am the chief enemy of Memory, should recollect it!
FASHION — But I do. I know also that we both equally profit by the incessant change and destruction of things here below, although you do so in one way, and I in another.
DEATH — Unless you are speaking to yourself, or to some one inside your throat, raise your voice, and pronounce your words more distinctly. If you go mumbling between your teeth with that thin spider-voice of yours, I shall never understand you; because you ought to know that my hearing serves me no better than my sight.
FASHION — Although it be contrary to custom, for in France they do not speak to be heard, yet, since we are sisters, I will speak as you wish, for we can dispense with ceremony between ourselves. I say then that our common nature and custom is to incessantly renew the world. You attack the life of man, and overthrow all people and nations from beginning to end; whereas I content myself for the most part with influencing beards, head-dresses, costumes, furniture, houses, and the like. It is true, I do some things comparable to your supreme action. I pierce ears, lips, and noses, and cause them to be torn by the ornaments I suspend from them. I impress men’s skin with hot iron stamps, under the pretence of adornment. I compress the heads of children with tight bandages and other contrivances; and make it customary for all men of a country to have heads of the same shape, as in parts of America and Asia. I torture and cripple people with small shoes. I stifle women with stays so tight, that their eyes start from their heads; and I play a thousand similar pranks. I also frequently persuade and force men of refinement to bear daily numberless fatigues and discomforts, and often real sufferings; and some even die gloriously for love of me. I will say nothing of the headaches, colds, inflammations of all kinds, fevers — daily, tertian, and quartan — which men gain by their obedience to me. They are content to shiver with cold, or melt with heat, simply because it is my will that they cover their shoulders with wool, and their breasts with cotton. In fact, they do everything in my way, regardless of their own injury.
DEATH — In truth, I believe you are my sister; the testimony of a birth certificate could scarcely make me surer of it. But standing still paralyses me, so if you can, let us run; only you must not creep, because I go at a great pace. As we proceed you can tell me what you want. If you cannot keep up with me, on account of our relationship I promise when I die to bequeath you all my clothes and effects as a New Year’s gift.
FASHION — If we ran a race together, I hardly know which of us would win. For if you run, I gallop, and standing still, which paralyses you, is death to me. So let us run, and we will chat as we go along.
DEATH — So be it then. Since your mother was mine, you ought to serve me in some way, and assist me in my business.
FASHION — I have already done so — more than you imagine. Above all, I, who annul and transform other customs unceasingly, have nowhere changed the custom of death; for this reason it has prevailed from the beginning of the world until now.
DEATH — A great miracle forsooth, that you have never done what you could not do!
FASHION — Why cannot I do it? You show how ignorant you are of the power of Fashion.
DEATH — Well, well: time enough to talk of this when you introduce the custom of not dying. But at present, I want you, like a good sister, to aid me in rendering my task more easy and expeditious than it has hitherto been.
FASHION — I have already mentioned some of my labours which are a source of profit to you. But they are trifling in comparison with those of which I will now tell you. Little by little, and especially in modern times, I have brought into disuse and discredit those exertions and exercises which promote bodily health; and have substituted numberless others which enfeeble the body in a thousand ways, and shorten life. Besides, I have introduced customs and manners, which render existence a thing more dead than alive, whether regarded from a physical or mental point of view; so that this century may be aptly termed the century of death. And whereas formerly you had no other possessions except graves and vaults, where you sowed bones and dust, which are but a barren seed, now you have fine landed properties, and people who are a sort of freehold possession of yours as soon as they are born, though not then claimed by you. And more, you, who used formerly to be hated and vituperated, are in the present day, thanks to me, valued and lauded by all men of genius. Such an one prefers you to life itself, and holds you in such high esteem that he invokes you, and looks to you as his greatest hope. But this is not all. I perceived that men had some vague idea of an after-life, which they called immortality. They imagined they lived in the memory of their fellows, and this remembrance they sought after eagerly. Of course this was in reality mere fancy, since what could it matter to them when dead, that they lived in the minds of men? As well might they dread contamination in the grave! Yet, fearing lest this chimera might be prejudicial to you, in seeming to diminish your honour and reputation, I have abolished the fashion of seeking immortality, and its concession, even when merited. So that now, whoever dies may assure himself that he is dead altogether, and that every bit of him goes into the ground, just as a little fish is swallowed, bones and all. These important things my love for you has prompted me to effect. I have also succeeded in my endeavour to increase your power on earth. I am more than ever desirous of continuing this work. Indeed, my object in seeking you to-day was to make a proposal that for the future we should not separate, but jointly might scheme and execute for the furtherance of our respective designs.
DEATH — You speak reasonably, and I am willing to do as you propose
In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort, a fable by Richard Avedon. Featuring model Nadja Auermann and a friendly skeleton companion, originally appearing in The New Yorker, November 6, 1995.
The first Donald Duck model sheet. Created in 1934 for the Disney cartoon The Wise Little Hen
Still from The Wise Little Hen (Wilfred Jackson, 1934)
Poster by Tom Whalen
It was his second appearance in Orphan’s Benefit (Burt Gillett, 1934) that introduced Donald as a temperamental comic foil to Mickey Mouse.
Carl Barks, best known for his comics about Donald Duck and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. Fans dubbed him “The Duck Man” and “The Good Duck Artist”.
Drawing by Don Rosa
The Duck universe also called the Donald Duck universe, Duckburg or Scrooge McDuck universe) is a fictional universe where Disney cartoon characters Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck live. It is a spin off of the older Mickey Mouse universe, yet has become much more extensive. “Duck universe” is a term used by fans and is not an official part of the Disney lexicon.
The New Spirit (Donald Duck), Andy Warhol, 1985
Look Mickey, Roy Lichtenstein, 1961
Daffy Duck first appeared in Porky’s Duck Hunt (Tex Avery, 1937)
The only aspects of Daffy Duck that have remained consistent through the years are his voice characterization by Mel Blanc and his black feathers with a white neck ring.
Howard the Duck is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973)
Paul and Linda McCartney with their daughters Heather, Stella and Mary. April 1976
Elton John. Central Park Concert, 1980
Photo by Irving Penn
Self portrait, Duane Michals
Napoleon Stereotype as Portrayed, Jean-Michel Basquiat
Portrait by Bruce Weber
Yohji Yamamoto. Fall/Winter 1984-1985. Photo: Nick Knight
Signed sketch by Jean Cocteau hanging on the wall at La Tour D’Argent.
Duck, especially the pressed duck, is the specialty (Canard à la presse, Caneton à la presse, Caneton Tour d’Argent). In 1890 Frederic, one of La Tour d’Argent’s owners, had the idea to enumerate each duck served at the restaurant. Edward VII ate number 328 in 1890. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall shared number 280.101 in 1951…
Lester Bookbinder
Dick’s Ducks,installation by Richard Jackson
Backpack
Zach Galifianakis by Martin Schoeller
In 1992 a shipping container filled with rubber ducks was lost at sea. Over 28,000 rubber duckies fell overboard on their way from Japan to the United States.
Giant Rubber Duck by Florentijn Hoffman
Brooksfield logo
Mandarina Duck is an Italian fashion brand. The company name and logo come from the Mandarin duck, a breed that lives on the banks of the Ussuri River on the border of Russia and China.
Ducks Unlimited (DU) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands and associated upland habitats for waterfowl, other wildlife, and people. Ducks Unlimited was incorporated by Joseph Knapp, E. H. Low and Robert Winthrop on January 29, 1937, in Washington, D.C.
Lester Bookbinder
The Genealogy of Style 