Notebook on Cities and Clothes

This “diary film” as Wenders called it, investigates the similarities of his craft, filmmaking and that of the Tokyo based fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. In the early 1980s, he shocked and revolutionized the fashion world. Wenders shot the film mainly on his own as a one-man team. During the shooting, which stretched over the course of a year, Yamamoto and Wenders became friends.

Extracts from Wenders narrating voice of the film: “Fashion. I got nothing to do with that. At least that was my reaction when the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris asked me if I would like to make a short film about a fashion designer.”

“The world of fashion. I am interested in the world, not in fashion. But maybe my judgement was premature. Why shouldn’t I try to approach the topic without prejudices. Why not look at fashion like any other industry, the film industry for example?”

“Filmmaking…should sometimes just be a way of life. Like going for a walk, reading a newspaper, writing something down, driving a car, or making this film. From day to day it writes itself, driven by the curiosity for the topic.