Ｙ’ｓ Ｆａｓｈｉｏｎ Ｓｈｏｗ ａｎｄ Ａｕｃｔｉｏｎ ｆｏｒ Ｙｏｈｊｉ Ｙａｍａｍｏｔｏ Ｆｕｎｄ ｆｏｒ Ｐｅａｃｅ Ｈｅｌｄ ｉｎ Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ

Ｄｏｎｇ　Ｓｉｊｉａ

At the invitation of the CPAFFC, Yohji Yamamoto, internationally known Japanese fashion designer and his 40-member entourage, paid a visit to Beijing from April 22 to 27, during which they attended the Ys Fashion Show and the Auction for Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace jointly sponsored by the CPAFFC and the Yohji Yamamoto Inc. State Councillor Liu Yandong met with Yohji Yamamoto and some members of his entourage.

Yohji Yamamoto is a world renowned fashion designer. As early as in the 1970s and 1980s, his unique designing style and exquisite tailoring made a big splash throughout the world and became the representative of the avant-garde of the Japanese wave in the global fashion circles. Over the past 30 years, in the spirit of transcending tradition and making innovation, he has created such brands as Ys and Y-3 that lead the global fashion trend and won fans from many countries in the world including China. His father died during the war, and his mother who started to live in widowhood early bore hardships to bring him up. He knows profoundly the preciousness of peace and thus, has donated money to the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development (CFFPD) under the CPAFFC to set up the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace.

On the afternoon of April 25, State Councillor Liu Yandong met with Yohji Yamamoto and chief members of his entourage. State Councillor Liu said, Yohji Yamamoto and the Yohji Yamamoto Inc. have achieved great success in the clothing industry and are farsighted to conduct international exchanges and cooperation in clothing culture. She appreciated and spoke highly of their friendly act of donating 8 million RMB yuan to the CFFPD to set up the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace for the purpose of giving financial aid to brilliant young Chinese fashion designers and models for further training in such countries as France and Japan that set the fashion. Liu said, China very much welcomes Yohji Yamamoto and friendly personages like him. She hoped that Yohji would use his influence in Japan and the world to make contributions to friendly exchanges between China and Japan andother countries in the world, and that Yohji would help China train fashion designers with his superb designing talents. Yohji Yamamoto said, it is his greatest dream to visit Beijing and hold Ys Fashion Show on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games. In future he will do his utmost to promote Japan-China friendship and the development of Chinas clothing industry.

On the evening of April 24, Ys Fashion Show was held in the Imperial Ancestral Temple (the Beijing Working Peoples Cultural Palace). CPAFFC Vice Presidents Li Xiaolin and Feng Zuoku, Secretary General Luo Qin and diplomatic envoys in China from 17 countries including Japan, Italy and Spain, among over 600 Chinese and foreign guests, attended it. At the show sixty suits of mens and womens autumn and winter wear including everyday clothing, evening dress and a variety of dresses for social life specially designed for this show were displayed. Yohji applied the concept of “costumes shape a graceful figure” to his unconventional designs. By dividing and combining various textiles such as calf leather, woolen cloth, cotton cloth, diaphanous laces, etc. in irregular shapes he created elegant womens costumes. Most of his womens costumes are of a combination of black and bright red, blue and yellow colours, and mens basically of black colour; some dotted with red and blue. All his costumes were exquisitely tailored looking at once respectable, tasteful and lively.

To better convey his design concept and show the environment that suits his costumes, Yohji Yamamoto made meticulous arrangements for every detail of the show including selection of models, the catwalk route, and the background music, and even added some plots to the show, making it seem like a play so that the audience could better understand the intention of the design. He invited 33 first-class male and female models from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine to give the performance.

The whole fashion show was in a gentle and yet gorgeous atmosphere, simple and yet tasteful, with every detail richly permeated with philosophical flavour confirming the immense intension of this global top-notch brand.

On April 26, Yohji Yamamoto and the Ys Asia Ltd. held the Auction for the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace in Beijing Hotel, auctioning the 60 suits displayed at the Fashion Show on April 24 and donating all the proceeds to the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace under the CFFPD to help China raise the level of its fashion design and train world top models. CPAFFC Vice President Feng Zuoku attended the auction and expressed his congratulations and sincere thanks to Yohji Yamamoto and his company for their kind help and the spirit of peace and friendship. The auction attracted crowds of Ys fans from Spain, Russia, Japan and Hong Kong and achieved full success.