Sunday, October 18, 2009


TOKYO — Yohji Yamamoto, the Japanese designer whose ascetic look defied the overexuberance of the 1980s, fell prey to the global economic crisis on Friday when the company bearing his name filed for bankruptcy protection.

Yohji Yamamoto follows a string of fashion houses into insolvency amid a slump in luxury sales worldwide. The Italian luxury company Gianfranco Ferré filed for bankruptcy in February, while Christian Lacroix, the French couturier, sought bankruptcy protection in May.


The outlook for the fashion industry is especially bleak in Japan. Women here, once the world’s most avid luxury shoppers, are turning to cheaper, more casual fashion in the middle of a prolonged downturn.


Low-cost brands like Uniqlo and the Swedish casual fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz have become the labels of choice for many Japanese.


Just this week, Gianni Versace, the Italian fashion brand, announced it would close its Japanese stores as demand for luxury goods continued to decline. Versace Japan had sales of 1.6 billion yen in 2008 (about $18 million at today’s exchange rates) compared with 4.1 billion yen four years ago.




Posted by: Kelsey Hoffman

1 comment:

  1. It is unfortunate that the fashion industry is hit the hardest with the fall of the economy.

    Posted by Lily Mei

    ReplyDelete