Dialogue

This visual ‘Dialogue’ between Yohji Yamamoto and Sarah Moon is an exceptional book designed by the two artists. Under a minimalist black cover, it presents 45 photographs, most of them previously unpublished.

In Sarah Moon’s fashion photographs, it is the woman who plays the leading role, and it is from her clothes that the character she embodies is born. The photographer has been capturing Yohji Yamamoto’s collections since the late 1990s, fascinated by his approach. This book, the fruit of their long collaboration, begins with a dialogue between the artists highlighting the similarities in their artistic approaches, the importance of the suspended moment, the gift of creation and their constant quest for surprise. The words ‘gift’ and ‘chance’ – the kind you have to work hard to seize – come up a lot. Both are also united by their choice to never follow trends.

The first part of the book opens with a portrait of the couturier by the photographer and continues with images from the iconic collections of the 90s. With a flick of the scissors, we move on to the present. The never-before-seen photographs, sometimes in colour, sometimes in black and white, reveal the springsummer and autumn-winter collections of the last five years. The layout, imagined by four hands, is punctuated by Yohji Yamamoto’s favourite words and Sarah Moon’s mysterious images, and concludes with a sketch of the designer.

This book, a fashion book like no others, reveals a complicity of more than 30 years.