Yohji Yamamoto will begin pre-selling its new luxury accessory brand, "discord," at the Isetan Shinjuku store on May 12th. A press conference was held at the store prior to the store's opening, featuring designer Yohji Yamamoto and Isetan Shinjuku store general manager Masaaki Takano.
Discord is a brand launched as a joint project between Yohji Yamamoto and Isetan Mitsukoshi. Yamamoto proposes new values through luxury accessories. As the brand name, which means "dissonance," suggests, the brand expresses the delicate Japanese sensibility of finding beauty in things that are slightly off-kilter, imperfect, and unstable, through high-quality, made-in-Japan accessories and bags. The brand logo was inspired by the idea of slightly scratching a perfect object to bring out its imperfect beauty. The product lineup includes 17 scarves (priced from 20,000 to 53,000 yen), 17 bags (priced from 69,000 to 238,000 yen), four pairs of women's shoes (priced from 59,000 to 65,000 yen), and 14 leather accessories (priced from 26,000 to 63,000 yen).
Yamamoto explained, "I've been working in the fashion world for nearly 40 years, but I've never actually designed a bag before. In order to incorporate the feeling that women get when carrying accessories and bags into the design, I gathered female designers and focused on incorporating their "feel" into small details like the softness of the leather and the length of the bag handle."
The brand was unveiled at the Mitsukoshi Isetan pop-up store "NIPPONISTA" held in New York in February. Takano, the store's head, said, "It was well received locally. Nipponista is part of our JAPAN SENSES project, which showcases the best of Japan. This year, we opened a store in New York with the aim of elevating the brand. We've long felt that there was a lack of an accessory brand made by a Japanese person in Japan that could compete with global luxury brands, so we approached Yohji Yamamoto." Yamamoto readily agreed.
Yamamoto concluded, "Japan has many truly 'cool' things. The aesthetics of wabi-sabi, space, and minimalism, as well as the delicate sense that finds beauty in decay and distortion, are unique to the Japanese. Furthermore, there are artisans who, despite being small businesses or elderly, possess world-class traditional craftsmanship. If we can demonstrate that products incorporating these techniques can reach many consumers, it may encourage more young people to inherit these techniques. Nurturing young talent and passing on skills may be my future role as someone who has been involved in fashion for a long time. I want to see young people grow and develop. To that end, I want to express a Japanese beauty that cannot be created overseas. Everyone, please help me!" Following the advance sale at the store, the products will go on sale at Ginza Mitsukoshi from May 21, at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store from May 28, and at Aoyama Main Store from May 23. In addition, an installation-style event that conveys the brand's worldview, "INSTALLATION at Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo by Yohji Yamamoto," is being held for a limited time until June 8 in the lobby on the 38th floor of Mandarin Oriental Tokyo.
