From the crush at the door, you’d almost forget that Y-3, the pioneering sports-fashion collaboration between Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto, is into its third decade. When that then radical pairing foresaw the future, back in 2002, many of the VIPs in today’s crowd—among them NBA power forward Jerami Grant, singer Brent Faiyaz, skateboarder Tyshawn Jones, and, onstage, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and soccer stars Naomie Feller and Fuka Nagano—hadn’t yet learned to count.
“It was fantastic, because Y-3 was the first time a big designer made sports things with taste and a special aesthetic,” reminisced Boston retailer Alan Bilzerian, one of the first to stock Yohji Yamamoto back before he took Paris by storm. “It was new and refreshing; it’s a mood and all the musicians were into it,” added his wife, Bê. “Now the kids want to get back to original talents that aren’t too influenced by the media.”
For its first runway outing in five years, Y-3 booked the legendary Salle Pleyel concert hall, transforming the stage into a runway with, at its center, three spot-illuminated monoliths. Against that flashing backdrop came a strong collection divided into three chapters called Aeration, Reflex, and Superposition, starring revisited technical fabrics—for example, mesh reworked as streetwear, loosely quilted Adizero squares fluttering on a pretty column dress, and amply tailored jackets stitched with bands of trailing white threads. A blue and white satin bomber with red embroidery popped amid a sea of black, as did a series of five looks in a blurred aquatic print. The runway also revealed the official uniforms for the Japan Football Association. Footwear included the Y-3 Regu, a reinterpretation of a low-top shoe from the original Yohji-Adidas collaboration, and three lightweight, futuristic iterations of the Adidas Superstar called Y-3 Zodai.
It was a masterful return brimming with possibilities. In the front row, Grant reflected on the lure of Y-3: “I love the way he layers, the way he leaves stitches in; it’s like artwork,” he said, reckoning that he has amassed well over 200 Y-3 pieces just in the past three or four years. With this collection, the brand will likely touch a new generation of fans, sports-inclined and otherwise.
