Yohji Yamamoto Opens His Private Sketchbook in a First-Ever Thames & Hudson ‘Drawings’ Book
The forthcoming hardcover gathers never-before-published illustrations handpicked by the designer himself.
Summary
Yohji Yamamoto is releasing a hardcover book of previously unpublished drawings through Thames & Hudson
The collection is authored by Palais Galliera curator Alexandre Samson with design support from Peter Saville, featuring images chosen by Yamamoto himself
Spanning menswear and womenswear across varied papers, the book frames his sketches as a window into his creative process rather than mere preparatory work
Yohji Yamamoto is the subject of a new Thames & Hudson book, Yohji Yamamoto Drawings, that pulls back the curtain on the sketches behind one of fashion’s most singular bodies of work. Authored by curator Alexandre Samson with design support from Peter Saville, the volume gathers illustrations that have never been fully explored in print, offering a rare look at how Yamamoto thinks on paper.
To understand why these drawings matter, it helps to trace the arc that made Yamamoto essential. Born in Tokyo in 1943, he trained in law before turning away from that path to work in his mother’s dressmaking business, showing his first collection in Tokyo in 1977 and opening a Paris shop in 1981. That Paris arrival landed like a rupture. Alongside Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, Yamamoto introduced a language of black, asymmetry, and deliberate imperfection that European fashion had no framework for at the time, and the reverberations still shape how designers treat silhouette and negative space today.
His reach never stayed confined to the runway. Yamamoto lent his eye to film, designing for Brother and Until the End of the World, and in 2003 he launched Y-3 with adidas, a partnership that folded his design ethos into sportswear and helped write the early blueprint for the luxury-athletic collaborations that dominate the market now. Reading his drawings against that history reframes them as more than studio byproducts. Flaming coats, slumped figures, and elegant dresses populate the pages, rendered across a range of papers that includes old newspapers, evidence of an artist still testing the edges of what fashion can be.
The pairing of contributors adds its own weight. Samson, a fashion historian and curator at Palais Galliera, has built exhibitions around Martin Margiela and Rick Owens, giving him fluency in exactly the kind of conceptual design Yamamoto pioneered. Saville, meanwhile, brings a graphic sensibility honed over decades of genre-defining design work. With images selected by Yamamoto himself, the book carries the authority of a self-portrait drawn in the designer’s own hand.
Yohji Yamamoto Drawings is set for release on November 17, and is available now for pre-order through W. W. Norton, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
