To level accolades upon Yohji is like, as Leonard Cohen once said about Bob Dylan, “pinning a metal on Mount Everest”. He claims himself to not be an artist, he says fashion has never been an art, yet to deny the artistic quality of his work would be to deny what our eyes can plainly observe. Like an impressionist painter, he exhumes the depth of relatively simple garments (dirty clothes, the Japanese press branded his early work), taking a form and rendering its function secondary to the emotion he choses to evoke. He refuses to do all the work for you, where a passerby sees a wrinkled coat and oversized, strangely buttoned shirt, a man willing to consider the rorschach presented to him may see anything from romanticism to suffering. This foundational concession — that there is no answer to what precisely you’re looking at — has rendered Yohji a favorite of artists and thinkers across the world.

Titled “6.1 The Men” and shown in conjunction with Rei Kawakubo’s presentation for Comme Des Garcons Homme Plus, the fall 1991 collection has endured as one of Yohji’s most fabled outputs. It was viscerally influenced by the Gulf War, which was being fought concurrently, and focused on the eroticism which has time and time again tacitly charged bloody conflicts between nations. He was fascinated by the pin-up visuals which have been synonymous with battle since the second World War, and have often served as motivation for soldiers who lacked little else to cling onto.

The thick Riri zippers which define this jacket are fully functional, as the back can be completely unzipped. Further detailing includes a detachable faux fur collar, felted wool outer, and full cupro lining. This design was later revisited by Yohji for the AW2004 collection, and it predates the Dries Van Noten bomber interpretation by nearly 20 years.

Condition: 9/10. No significant flaws.

Tagged size: S (fits oversized)

Shoulder: 23.5in

Pit to pit: 27.5in

Length: 34in

Sleeve: 32in (measured from sleeve)