WIM WENDERS: Thinking about the film that we did together, Notebook on Cities and Clothes: Do you realize that it's almost a quarter of a century old now? Can you imagine? We were both young men when we made that movie. So many things have happened to you since then—and over the last 10 years, especially.
YOHJI YAMAMOTO: Yes, yes. But at the same time, I feel like I have become a living fossil in the fashion world. Without even noticing it, in my own collection I have moved away from the street style. I was on a Japanese designers' pedestal—considered a maestro. My design was getting closer to a couturier's work, and I felt like I was missing something. But I always want to have a new challenge involved. I need to put myself to the test, and if I make mistakes, it doesn't matter. What matters to me, instead, is making my dreams come true and putting them on display. At a certain point, I stopped seeing my clothing worn by people on the streets . . . It seemed like they were being treated as museum items.