London’s Live Archives are hosting an exhibition of renegade designer Yohji Yamamoto’s work. ‘Showspace’ presents 60 pieces from a spectrum of Yamamoto’s career and represents work from all of his various lines.

‘Showspace’ is a reconfiguration of what we’d conventionally expect from a fashion exhibition; live models are used in lieu of mannequins, showing how his garments adapt to our bodies and adapt our body’s silhouettes. The complex construction of Yamamoto’s clothes is well known and the multiplicity of design will be shown on his live models as they wear the garments in all their forms. Such an authentically corporeal display of clothes overturns Yamamoto’s declaration of fashion museums as ‘where fashion goes to die’.

The show has been designed by exhibition maker Jeffrey Horsley, who has based the design and process of the display on a couture salon, paying tribute to Yamamoto’s appreciation of the Golden Age of Couture.

‘Showspace’ launches tonight at Live Archives, Mare Street with a live video stream on www.live-archives.london from 19.30 till 21.30

Live Archives, 81-83, Mare Street, London E8 4RG
31 July-8 August 2015, 13.00-19.00 daily