Fashion Designing star Yamamoto Yohji and Adidas have teamed up to make Y-3, a brand of clothing that combines Adidas’ street sensiblility with Yamamoto’s elegance and style. The project was started in 2003, but it coming to full fruition now, as celebrities worldwide are supporting it.

Yamamoto Yohji was born in Yokohama in 1943. 25 years later he graduated from Bunka Fashion college and started his own fashion line. In the mid-80s, Yamamoto, Kawakubo Rei, and Miyake Issei made Tokyo into the fashion capital of Asia, as it is today. Yamamoto has long been a star in the international fashion world, but if you’re as out of touch with that as I am, you may know him for his costume designs in Kitano Takeshi’s Brother, Dolls, and Zatoichi. He often works with Kitano, along with many other directors, both Japanese and not. His latest costume work was on Kitano Takeshi’s “Takeshis’” in 2005. His Y’s line has outlets all over the world, including Belgium, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and the USA.

Yamamoto’s style is much different than most designers that come to mind. He doesn’t like using many colors and usually designs loose fitting clothing and headwear, which is great for the Adidas line. Yamamoto is currently looking for inspirations for his Spring/Summer 2008 line. From what can be seen on the Y-3 official website, it looks like Yamamoto is going for “less is more.” The line is in high anticipation, as many celebrities are backing it now. Of particular note is British Rock Band Placebo and American Rappers Lupe Fiasco and Jay-Z.

I got the chance to check out the line straight from its source, in Tokyo, while I was there in July. I stumbled upon it inside a Marui store in Shibuya. I was impressed by the sensible designs and how well he uses the color black in his clothes without making them look plain. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing a boom of hot new designs from him in later months.

Are you feeling Y-3 and Yamamoto’s style? Or does Y-3 not live up to the hype? Tell me what you think!

Sources:
http://www.adidas.com
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.yohjiyamamoto.co.jp