High-end Japanese fashion house, Yohji Yamamoto filed for bankruptcy last Friday, joining a line of other fashion brands like Christian Lacroix and Escada, which have fallen victim to the global recession.
Having amassed debts that amounted to six billion yen (or USD67.8 million), the label synonymous with avant-garde fashion will be bought over by Tokyo-based investment company, Integral Corp.
The investment company will be financing the Yamamoto Group’s restructuring, while covering sponsorship for the design business of Yamamoto’s daughter, Limi Yamamoto Inc.
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, Yamamoto said: “I concentrated too hard on making clothes and left too much responsibility on higher management.
“But my biggest obligation is to keep making world-beating products. I’ll continue to do that until the business is wound up.”
The 66-year-old designer favored an understated palette, with an emphasis on black, and masculine cuts in his designs. He was known to produce unobtrusive fashion. The brand attracted a small cult following as Yamamoto became part of an influential group of Japanese designers that included Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, the brand’s moderately priced Y-3 line launched in collaboration with Adidas is set to continue, and it will also continue to operate while under bankruptcy protection.
The news comes as a second blow to the health of Japanese luxury fashion retail, hot on the heels of Versace’s announcement only two days earlier that it is closing its three stores and pulling out of Japan.
