Notebook on Cities and Clothes by Yohji Yamamoto and Wim Wenders

Notebook on Cities and Clothes is one of the most poetic fashion films that I've seen. I love the interplay between Wenders philosophical musings on film, fashion, and identity, paired with Yohji's reflections on fashion, and especially the study of blue-collar work clothes. There's a scene where Yohji is paging through a book of working class outfits as inspiration for silhouettes and the draping of fabric that I often recall. Yohji talks about how, in cities, people's clothes served as a name card for their profession, more so in the past than now (or in the 80s when the film was made).

It's easy to think of fashion as frivolous, indulgent, apolitical, whatever-- but Yohji reminds us that it's just the opposite: fashion moves with and reflects politics, class, and poetic insights. And Wenders, throughout this year-long collaboration, continually reminds us of the frame through narration and doubling: filmic, photographic, cities, la mode, time. Yohji struggled with the business side of fashion, and even though I wish such struggle wasn't the case for him, I respect that he was focused on the details of what he made rather than what it generated in terms of capital. Might be a good watch on May Day or any day, really.