Yohji Yamamoto’s approach to collaboration has always been special in that he has allowed his collaborators exceptional creative freedom. The timeline will feature some of the most remarkable and now iconic photographic renderings of his work, the beautifully conceived catalogues. These catalogues went far beyond a mere lookbook and were art directed, photographed and designed by now leading figures in the industry, such as Marc Ascoli, Nick Knight, Peter Saville, Paolo Roversi, M/M (Paris), Max Vadukul, Craig McDean, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
As these publications are very tactile and considered, it was important not only for them to be seen, but to be experienced. Considering that they are quite rare now and would almost certainly not survive the inquisitive hands of thousands of visitors, we decided to produce facsimiles for the exhibition. Under the careful supervision of Mark Bennett from our imaging partner Canon and binding specialist Hannah Brown, we reproduced some of the key catalogues from the last thirty years. There were several machines used in the process, in order to get the prints as true to the originals as possible. The larger photo-quality prints were made on a plotter, and special paper had to be sourced to match each individual catalogue.
