There’s a lot beneath the surface in Y-3’s marriage of fashion and activewear. Simply put, in order to play hard and look great at the same time, these garments have a lot of work to do, and technology helps them do that. There is a constant interplay between the natural (be it the body or materials such as washed silk) and the synthetic. This is the second time in a row that the teams of Yohji Yamamoto and Adidas have brought that tension to the surface.
For spring, rust stains and quilting, plus larger volumes, emphasize tactility and fill space; What was not visible to the human eye, on the other hand, was a focus for autumn. That theme was represented by the lilac bird, depicted on a sweater, which, as Stefano Pierre Beruschi of Adidas said, “has the most infrared and ultraviolet on its feathers that exists in nature,” a fact revealed by special cameras (if there but something similar existed before In any case, there has been an emphasis in fashion on tranquility, a slight move towards concealment versus uncovering, and the Y-3 collection not only gave the wearer the ability to adjust the fit of garments to fit, but also to hide the logo stripes by means of flaps, snaps and zippers. A step in the DIY topography where you wear the logo, but you do not wear the logo.
This ability was supplemented with unexpected visual tics that made you look twice, like an asymmetrical pocket that fell open to add a sort of cubist touch to a sports skirt. There were also attached sleeves that could be worn over the arms or as a scarf. What looked like a tie-dye pattern was actually a repeatedly over-dyed nylon that was then flocked in a kind of reverse devoré process. At the request of Yohji Yamamoto himself, leather was used instead of leather on one jacket, as if to emphasize its artificiality. Beruschi said: It was about “taking something that feels natural and twisting and contorting it in a way that feels a little more against the grain, through material, through stylistic gestures. We worked a lot on the space on the body and controlling the space between the body and the garment.”
As spring’s focus on what the team called ‘counternatural’ shifted to that of the ‘hypernatural’, last season’s protective feel was translated into something lighter (see the dress with the perforated knits, or the body huggers with transparent inserts) and visually warm. More attention was paid to draping and tailoring and the play between narrow and voluminous shapes, with the result that this was a collection with room to breathe.
