Limi Yamamoto, the Tokyo-based designer behind the women's label Limi Feu, is in New York this week for a rare U.S. residency at the Yohji Yamamoto Wooster Street store. The event, which opened Tuesday evening, features an immersive installation by Yamamoto that will remain on display through Sunday. It marks a deliberate effort to deepen the brand's foothold in the American market, where Limi Feu has long maintained a quiet presence at select boutiques like If and Atelier in New York, Mayfield LA, and the Yohji Yamamoto flagship in SoHo. For those unfamiliar with lingerie history, Yamamoto's approach to construction echoes the meticulous handcraft of early 20th-century corsetry - where pattern-making was an art form as intimate as the garments themselves. Indeed, Yamamoto proudly identifies not as a fashion designer but as a patternmaker, a lineage she inherited from her father, Yohji Yamamoto, whose own deconstructive techniques revolutionized tailoring in the 1980s. Her work, however, is distinctly her own: deeply informed by rock 'n' roll and rebellion, with a heavy reliance on black, draping, and handcrafted Japanese fabrics. In conjunction with the residency, Limi Feu has partnered with artist Eri Wakiyama on an exclusive capsule collection of T-shirts and a single shirt, each bearing Wakiyama's artwork, alongside a limited-edition handmade doll and keychain. The collaboration underscores Yamamoto's belief in timelessness - a philosophy she demonstrated by mixing archival pieces with current spring designs on mannequins, making it impossible to distinguish between past and present. Dresses range from $1,200 to $1,500, shirts hover around $500 to $600, and T-shirts are approximately $200. Yamamoto, who shows during Paris Fashion Week, visits New York every two years or so, drawn by the city's electric energy. When asked about her ideal customer, she described someone "fighting with themselves" and possessing a hint of rebellion - a sentiment that resonates with lingerie's own history of rebellion against restrictive norms. While she declined to speculate on succeeding her father at the helm of his empire, Yamamoto expressed a desire for a freestanding Limi Feu store in New York, ideally near Yohji's SoHo flagship. For now, her collections - each reflecting her internal response to the world - remain a masterclass in deconstruction, draping, and the quiet power of handmade design.
Originally reported by WWD