Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto has died. "It is with great sadness that we announce that Kansai Yamamoto passed away on July 21, 2020," it says in a post on Kansai Yamamoto's official Instagram account.
In contrast to Buddhist-influenced ideals of quietness and simplicity, Yamamoto linked to the Japanese traditions of the loud, colorful, extravagant: kabuki theater costumes, tattoos, hoodies. Immediately on his debut in London in 1971, he became a success in a decade where the collar nibs reached outside the body and people wore platform shoes to everyday life.
After him came the Japanese fashion designers Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto (not related) and made even greater success in the 80's with steering back towards the austere and stylish again.
Most famous is Kansai Yamamoto for his fruitful collaboration with David Bowie. The two met after Bowie started using garments from Yamamoto's first women's collection in his shows. The meeting led to the assignment to create an entire wardrobe for Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's new stage character and one of rock history's most successful, expressive and distinctive looks.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in 2016, Yamamoto described the collaboration with Bowie as something very special, that the clothes he designed for Bowie became "part of his message to the world", "My clothes became part of David, his songs and music".
Kansai Yamamoto suffered from cancer and turned 76 years old.