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.

Yohji’s fall 1995 collection was inspired by Rokumeikan, a popular late 19th-century hall in Tokyo which played a key role in bringing Western manners to Japan through parties and other festivities. Its enduring legacy is rather controversial due to its standing as a visceral symbol for westernization. Yohji memorialized renderings of happenings inside the hall across shirts, coats, and sweaters. Along with this, he released a series of now famous floral knits that came in a range of colors and silhouettes - this one features a single flower over a rich purple wool.

Condition: 9/10. No significant flaws. 

Tagged size: M

Shoulder: 21in

Pit to pit: 23in

Length: 28in

Sleeve: 25in