Yohji Yamamoto: In the Shadow of a Warming Planet
With his Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Yohji Yamamoto brings an intellectual and political dimension to fashion.
The show carried a powerful narrative, with a graphic message on almost every look. A quiet yet forceful manifesto on the current state of the world…
Apart from the four soft-structured dark suits that opened the show, nearly every look carried graphic messages.
Phrases such as “Hindrance Hydrogen Ions”, “Don’t Look Back Be Free in Black”, “La Musique Avant Toute Chose” and “Long Hot Summer” rang out at the heart of the collection like a cry of awareness about the climate crisis. These messages turned the show into a petition at once poetic and political. An intellectual anxiety about our ever-warming planet found its voice through poetic slogans, through silks patterned like stained glass and through the infinite possibilities of black.
Yamamoto’s 2026 Manifesto
The dark, lightly structured suit of the opening look reminds us that black can stand not only for mourning or nobility, but also for freedom. Yamamoto whispers to us that he sees black not as a colour but as an attitude.
A long silk redingote adorned with patterns inspired by cathedral stained-glass windows, paired with dhoti trousers that break at the ankle, reaches an almost spiritual image. It unites the religious symbolism of medieval Europe with the meditative feeling of the East.
The collection moves from soft-structured dark suits to deconstructed silk jackets, redingotes and long kimonos, completed by patterned silks recalling cathedral stained glass. Silk trousers curling at the ankle, loosely textured knits, lightly structured short-sleeved shirts in chalky tones and wide-cut trousers — simple and elegant, built on both comfort and volume — represent a way of dressing that touches the air rather than the body. Reinterpreting the pyjama style, Yamamoto completed the looks with “centurion” shoes inspired by gladiator sandals and curling boxing boots.
The music on the runway was made up of songs everyone would quietly sing along to, moving between a rebellious and an emotional mood: “Endless Love”, “What a Wonderful World”, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”. The music was the collection’s silent narrator.
At the end of the show, taking off his hat to bow, Yohji Yamamoto said: “It’s been so hot — the world is getting too warm now! People need to think about this deeply. Politicians must be much fairer in wars, or the world will end very soon.”
This collection by Yamamoto leaves a note not only in the history of fashion, but on the conscience of humanity.