How to Date Yohji Yamamoto From the Tags

The quickest way to date most modern Yohji Yamamoto garments is to find the product number on the care label. It may look like HO-J59-113, HW-B10-007, or FT.T73.021.

The second letter is the season code. It is the most useful part for dating, but it is not a complete date: Yohji Yamamoto reuses letters, and some carryover products keep the same code across several collections. Use it to make a shortlist, then check the size label, care symbols, and—where possible—the garment itself against runway or lookbook images.

For HO-J59-113:

• H identifies Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme.
• O points to several possible seasons, including Autumn/Winter 2024-25.
• J identifies the pattern as a jacket or coat.
• 59 is the style number.
• 113 is consistent with the wool group.

If the garment, label construction, and collection imagery also fit 2024-25, the code supports that date. The letter O alone does not prove it.

Yohji Tag Dating at a Glance

1. Find the product number on the care label and copy it exactly.
2. Read the first letter to identify the line.
3. Look up the second letter in the season chart.
4. Check the third letter against the garment category.
5. Use the size format and care symbols to eliminate the wrong decades.
6. Confirm the remaining season with a runway image, lookbook, shop listing, or dated receipt.

This system works best for Japanese-market garments from Yohji Yamamoto's house labels. Collaborations, licensed products, samples, export labels, accessories, and seasonless ranges can follow different rules. Y-3 uses adidas product identifiers and should not be dated with this chart.

Step 1: Find and Read the Product Number

The product number—called a 品番 (hinban) in Japanese—is usually printed on the wash or composition label inside the garment. Hyphens and dots may vary, and sellers often remove the punctuation when transcribing it:

Read the core code from left to right:

Extra characters after the core number usually identify a colour or model variation. They do not normally provide a separate date.

First letter: the line

These are the recurring house codes, not an exhaustive list of every Yohji project. A collaboration may use the partner's system, remain under an existing Yohji line letter, or receive an exceptional code. Read the sewn brand label before relying on the first letter. For help distinguishing the labels, see Yohji Yamamoto's lines explained.

Third letter: the garment category

The letter describes the category used internally for the pattern, so it will not always match a retailer's product name. C and J, for example, can both appear on coats.

Last three digits: the fabric group

The final block is useful for checking a code, but it should not override the printed composition. The clearest recurring groups in Wardatrobe's sample are:

Higher ranges are inconsistent. Treat them as internal material references rather than a universal fabric decoder.

Step 2: Look Up the Season Letter

The second letter is reused, and the interval between repeats is irregular. There is no formula that converts it into a year. Find the letter below, write down every plausible season, then eliminate candidates with the tag checks in the next section.

SS means Spring/Summer. AW25, for example, means Autumn/Winter 2025-26.

The pre-2023 assignments are the chart commonly used by Japanese vintage dealers and archive sellers. References including EMIT TOKYO, de-suke, and TRUSS Archive describe the same product-number structure. These are collector and trade references rather than an official decoder published by Yohji Yamamoto.

The 2023–26 additions were reconstructed from Yohji Yamamoto's official seasonal shop collections and archived product URLs. The dominant codes found for recent collections are:

“Dominant” matters. A seasonal shop collection may include permanent accessories, carryover designs, collaborations, or capsule products with a different second letter. A code that matches the dominant letter is strong evidence; a minority code needs another dated source.

Step 3: Use the Physical Tag to Choose the Decade

Once the season letter gives you two or more candidates, use these checks in order.

Size format: before or after 2000

Japanese vintage dealers generally associate lettered sizes such as S, M, and L with Autumn/Winter 1999 and earlier, and numeric sizes such as 1, 2, and 3 with Spring/Summer 2000 onward.

This is a useful trade convention, not a house-published cutoff. Shoes, accessories, one-size garments, collaborations, and export-market labels may not follow it.

Care symbols: before or after December 2016

Japan changed its care-labelling standard on 1 December 2016, replacing the older JIS L0217 symbols with the ISO-aligned JIS L0001 set. The Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency shows both the old symbols and transition date and the current symbol system.

• Old Japanese-only symbols support a pre-December 2016 date.
• ISO-style symbols support a date from December 2016 onward.

This is strongest on an original Japanese domestic label. Export labels can use the destination country's care system, and old stock sold around the transition can blur the boundary.

Registered-trademark symbol: around Spring/Summer 2017

Japanese dealer references report that the ® symbol beside the signature logo became standard around Spring/Summer 2017. Its presence supports a later date; its absence on a supposedly recent garment deserves a closer look.

Use this only as supporting evidence. Different lines and tag types did not necessarily change at the same moment.

No product number

Collector references generally place the alphabetical product-number system in the early 1990s. A convincingly original label with no product number can therefore point to an early piece, often described by Japanese dealers as the 丸ロゴ (maru-rogo, or round-logo) era.

Do not date a garment to “1991 or earlier” from absence alone. A label may be missing, faded, replaced, cut, or made for a market that used a different layout. Early pieces usually require comparison with runway photographs, catalogues, or documented examples of the same design.

Worked Example: Dating HO-J59-113

Suppose the code is printed on a black wool coat with a numeric size and modern ISO care symbols.

1. H matches Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme.
2. O gives four candidates: SS93, SS11, SS16, and AW24.
3. J is consistent with a coat.
4. 113 is consistent with wool.
5. A numeric size makes SS93 unlikely under the dealer convention.
6. Modern care symbols eliminate SS11 and SS16.

That leaves Autumn/Winter 2024-25 as the best-supported date. A matching runway look, official product page, or dated shop record would turn that strong attribution into a collection-level identification.

Common Dating Mistakes

Treating one letter as a unique year

Most letters have been used several times. A seller who reads O and declares “2016” without checking the rest of the tag has skipped the most important part of the process.

Dating the artwork instead of the garment

Reissues reproduce old graphics, invitations, and runway references. Seven WILDSIDE Pour Homme invitation T-shirts in Wardatrobe, for example, refer to shows from 1999 through 2019 but share recent WP-T0n-003-series codes. The artwork dates the source; the product number dates the production run.

Forcing a permanent range into the season chart

discord Yohji Yamamoto's DA leather-goods codes appear across multiple shop collections. In that range, A behaves as a continuity code rather than a unique season. Repeated products and accessories need a dated listing, receipt, packaging, or collection comparison.

Using the product number as proof of authenticity

A coherent number is a useful consistency check, not an authentication certificate. Counterfeiters can copy real codes. The line, category, fabric, size format, care symbols, construction, and garment design should all agree.

The Best Evidence, in Order

For a defensible date, use the strongest evidence available:

1. An official product page, collection listing, receipt, or catalogue naming the season.
2. A match to a documented runway or lookbook garment.
3. A product code whose line, season, category, and fabric all agree with the piece.
4. Physical tag details that eliminate the other years assigned to the same season letter.
5. Seller descriptions, unsourced charts, and visual guesses.

The most accurate result is sometimes a range rather than a single season. “After December 2016, probably Spring/Summer 2019” is better than an exact date the evidence cannot support.

Add Your Pieces to Wardatrobe

Create a free Wardatrobe account and catalogue the pieces you own in your digital wardrobe. Record the full product number exactly as printed, the tagged size, the country of manufacture, and clear photographs of both sides of the care label. Those details make later dating and comparison much easier. Already a member? Open your wardrobe.