It takes no genius to know that the recession absolutely blows for fashion- these are hard times for everyone. But truthfully, being smacked on a Friday night with news of Yohji Yamamoto filing for bankruptcy was a hard blow- hard enough to be the first piece of fashion news to ever bring me close to tears- and I'd have been well over the verge if the article hadn't confirmed that his firm can operate as usual since it found itself an investor.
The NYMag piece said nothing about what was to happen to Y-3 and Limi Feu (I wasn't clear whether the lines were owned by Yohji or not), so I decided to do a little digging around on Integral Corporation, the firm named as the aforementioned new investor. Turns out Integral is a Japanese corporation, and is indeed going to invest in both Yohji Yamamoto Inc. and Limi Yamamoto Inc, allowing them to continue business while the restructuring takes place .
It's rather a huge relief, really. Not only is a rather important design legacy going to carry on, but on a personal level, I'd have been heartbroken if Yohji had to close down while some other houses hired possibly-coke-addled starlets to give "artistic advice" to trained designers and sold unimaginative perfumes and leather rubbish ... but all's well that ends well, and I shall have my wardrobe of romantic angularity and non-traditionally sexy clothes to look forward to when I earn a salary to pay for them with...
And here is the press release announcing the entire thing (click on the link to read the PDF)
Also, RIP Irving Penn.
