Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

eBay Picks of the Day: Kansai Yamamoto

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Kansai Yamamoto is a Japanese designer who did costumes for David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days. The Ziggy Stardust Companion has a great page on the costumes here.

Embed from Getty Images

I’m pretty sure Bowie is wearing his Yamamoto short kimono without the cape — but presumably with the matching hot pants — in this 1973 performance clip. [UPDATED IN JULY 2013 TO NOTE THAT THE VIDEO THAT USED TO BE HERE HAS DISAPPEARED FROM YOUTUBE. SIGH.]

Not everything Yamamoto did was so wild. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has this cheerful Yamamoto sweater.

If you happen to be in the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a Yamamoto exhibit until spring. The museum’s website notes that Yamamoto’s heyday was the ’70s and ’80s and says:

“Since his last collection for fall/winter 1992, Kansai has lent his name to licensed products ranging from eyeglasses to tableware. His fashion show spectaculars have become the framework for the grand Kansai Super Shows, the first of which was held in Moscow’s Red Square in 1993. Others held since in Japan, Vietnam, India, and Berlin have drawn audiences in the hundreds of thousands.

Kansai recently returned to fashion as a designer of traditional Japanese garments in a contemporary idiom including kimono (2004) and Hanten festival–inspired coats (2007). He continues to produce Super Shows as part of a larger initiative to invigorate the arts in Japan and serves as a government advisor on tourism and cultural affairs.”

There are a few eye-catching Yamamoto pieces on eBay now. Click the photos to go to the auctions.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Hi Wendy,

    I adore Yamamoto and other japanese designer, especially Tsumori Chisato!

    Great post!

    xoxo & hugs: Janet

  5. I think the middle one would suit you Wendy! You could wear that in front of one of those paintings!

  7. That last jacket reminds me of the type of print that boys would wear on their shorts or t-shirts in the early 90s… like Maui and Sons-esque.

  8. Kansai Yamamoto and most other Japanese designers have my heart endy! why are they so creative and talented?
    love most of their work.hope its stopped snowing over there,keep warm dear.
    muah
    x
    marian

  10. Those looks really are evocative of an era. I really love the prints. That j-suit is extraordinary. I was hoping the “Companion page” would tell me what kind of fabric that is, but it didn’t, unless I missed something. Do you think it’s all done in sequins?

    I never knew who the designer was. Thanks for doing all the background research for me!

  16. I’d love to saunter into my next meeting with the same outfit that David Bowie had on. That is so hot for the financial industry…

  27. LOVE bowie. so sexy. and the sweater w/the panther is like that dress kate moss designed…er…knocked off…for top shop.

  31. Bowie wore Yamamotot well!

    On a Bowie note..I have had his songs in my head the last few days…the songs from his “Ziggy Stardust” days.

    Great post!