Two days after Nicole Phelps’ positive and curious review of Yohji Yamamoto’s spring collection, the house has filed for bankruptcy.

She wondered whether or not the designer was scaling back; he invited less people, kept the clothes commercial and put all of his avant-garde might into the hair and makeup instead of the pieces that need to sell in stores. Today it turns out she was right to worry.

Though the company’s debts total $67 million, Japan has a specific corporate rehabilitation law that’ll allow the company to continue functioning, and Yohji to continue designing, while dealing with the bankruptcy proceedings.

In other, much, much happier bankruptcy news, it sounds like Lacroix’s been rescued. Sheikh Al Hassan bin Ali Al-Nuami, the nephew of the emir of Ajman, presented his offer, which makes Lacroix a minority shareholder, to Paris’ commercial court and is expected to be a success. The court makes their final decision at the end of the month.

Fingers crossed Yamamoto gets a similar happy ending.

Talk about statement hair. From Dame Viv to Yohji Yamamoto, dyed and powdered hairstyles have definitely captured the attention of the front row and beyond this season.

The boys behind Proenza Schouler said that they were inspired by “surfing and skating” for their most recent collection. But this apparent Nineties grunge revival in fashion has influenced more than just clothes. At their S/S show, the purple and teal hair dye made the models look like Kurt Cobain-influenced mermaids. Natural elements surfaced in Europe as well. Vivienne Westwood’s fiery orange and red hair reinforced her always eco-concious message, while the bright, earthy green hair at Comme des Garçons was just another playful feature in a generally satirical collection. And at Yohji Yamamoto, the airy powder blue dye was the crowning feature for his minimalistic designs.

One question remains: will this wild hair trend have you rethinking the color of your coiffure come Spring?

If Alexander Wang’s the Superbowl, I guess that makes Yohji Yamamoto the World Cup. This season’s Y-3 extravaganza was all about soccer — which sadly seems to be going the way of “fetch” in the States as hard as people are trying to make it happen. They even dropped a net at the end of the show so Yohji and superstar players Zinedine Zidane tried to score.

Y-3 on the other is always happening. The darling of Fashion Week, Tavi, was there along with somewhat random mix of Rufus Wainwright, Perry Farrell, Russell Simmons and Diggy(!), and Lupe Fiasco. And Jesus [Luz] Walked — everyone’s favorite joke of the day. And we didn’t even know then that Kanye was going to make an ass out of himself mere hours later. As for the clothes, I was especially digging the little jackets and the voluminious tops that looked so incredibly soft and comfortable but still totally chic.

Every season it’s fun to anticipate what kind of major production you’re going to see at the show. And while it wasn’t as out there as the ice, I must say as an obsessive sports fan, I was totally down. I’m loving all this jock action, even though I had to miss opening day in the NFL to see it.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

Doc Martens are being reimagined, again, with another cool collaboration. Jean-Paul Gautier, Raf Simons and Yohji Yamamoto have all had a go at the iconic footwear.

And now Dr. Martens is collaborating with Comptoir des Cotonniers for a fall line.

They’ve taken the classic 1460 model, and redone it in a delicious light gray Palantino leather. Seems like everybody’s into gray lately!

If you have to announce you’re closing a New York office - the morning the world’s talking about Jason Wu might be the best time to do it.

Yohji Yamamoto’s closing his thirteen-year-old stateside press office at the end of this month. One person will stick around until March - probably to help the Adidas team with February’s Fall 09 Y-3 show and make sure all press operations are smoothly transferred to Japan.

Unlike a lot of designers making strategic changes, the Japanese brand has no qualms attributing the close to the rough economy, blaming “the economic situation in the U.S.”

Not to worry though - as of today, Yamamoto’s still planning his Paris shows, and the celebrity extravaganza Y-3 show in New York is definitely still on.

Want to work in PR?

Love all things Yohji (that includes YY Homme, YY Femme, etc, not just the clothes that appear on the runway)?

If you’re looking for a Spring internship, and can offer two full days per week, during which you’ll devote yourself entirely to being the organized, hard-working, sweet person every publicist-in-training should be, then e-mail Julie Saunders at julie.saunders[at]yohjiyamamoto.net with your resume and little blurb about yourself and life.

Oh, and the job offers $20 per day (meant for lunch and transportation), so we suggest sending your e-mail immediately.

Linda Dresner, the legendary Park Avenue boutique, will shutter next month.

While magazines go out with a bang, the city’s retail gems - this year’s seen the demise of Leontine and Dernier Cri along with others - quietly close their doors in the face of still-skyrocketing rents, invisible shoppers and major department store sales they’d never dream of competing with.

Dresner, who brought the greats - Yamamoto, Demeulemeester, Margiela, Jil Sander, Commes des Garcons - to the Upper East Side more than twenty years ago sums it up best, “There’s too much of everything right now. Would I open a store in New York today? No. Retailing has to be reconsidered. It’s become a commodity that’s less creative. There’s too many stores selling the same kind of merchandise and it’s not as beautifully chosen. It’s ruined the enthusiasm for fashion.”

Basically, the retail market, especially in New York, is totally oversaturated. You try on a pair of jeans in one store and they don’t have your size? Skip down the block, and if they don’t have them there, you might have to go three whole subway stops to yet another store carrying the same brand. It’s as easy to buy a pair of Sevens in this city as it is a grande latte.

Staying alive in this economy will be rough. Small boutiques will have to carry things the big stores don’t, whether that means different lines or just a different buy, because they just can’t mark things down the way Barneys can. Customers will need incentives - buy this, get that - they’ll need motivation and they’ll need, most of all, encouragement because even those who have the money to shop right now are terrified.

It won’t be easy, it will require patience and creativity and a passionate love of the game, but please, little stores, don’t close your doors!

If you’ve spent years listening to your boyfriend/intern/best man friend rave about Odin and you’re like, “OK, I get it. Enough,” then it’s finally your turn.

Eddy and Paul, the revered team behind the beloved men’s store, opened a women’s outpost in September, called Pas de Deux on 11th between 1st and 2nd, and we finally took a moment to hang out with Paul this morning.

He showed us the tightly edited selection of Wang, Lim, Engineered Garments (an Odin favorite), Vena Cava, Coventry, etc, merchandised together for easy-to-understand shopping. The clothes, basically our dream wardrobe, are accessorized with hard-to-find shoe styles from Repetto and Loeffler Randall, sunglasses from Karen Walker and Linda Farrow, and a handful of jewelry from mostly Brooklyn designers.

For Spring, they’re introducing Coming Soon by Yohji Yamamoto and Richard Chai (who conveniently happens to be Eddy’s brother). The tiny, and gorgeous store is meant to be your dream closet, and the blue wall paper, mirrors and girly chandeliers scream Holly Golightly - a very elegant scream, of course.

If we could’ve left with an entirely new outfit - save for our motorcycle boots - we would’ve. Instead, we left with a new favorite store and big plans for our closet.

“Am I still going to be alive in 2009? I really hope so. I am a designer; I will go on designing until I die. This is my way of talking about 2009, 2010…” —Yohji Yamamoto on the future of men’s fashion.

My camera is like, so over Fashion Week.

Or maybe it was protesting the lit up runway at Yohji Yamamoto. Either way, my pictures are terrible. So I’ll tell you about the pre-show conversation I had instead and you know where to find runway pictures.

I sat next to an editor from Vogue Brazil. Her thoughts on:

Anna Piaggi: “Do you know her? You are so young! She makes me tired. She is always perfectly dressed, meticulously coiffed. I just think, it must be so hard to pack because you know, in Brazil, we have so much help. Her home, in Milan, is literally covered in clothes, the most beautiful clothes that everyone who loves her has given her but so much work to take care of!”

Yohji and Comme des Garcons: “I saw them both show for the first time here in Paris in 1983. You were born, no? It was revolutionary, like girls walking out of a bomb. An entirely new aesthetic for us, all black and so deconstructed -brilliant.

Tokyo: “I went to Tokyo to interview Yohji in ‘92 and he is such a gentleman. A very quiet gentleman who was so famous, worshipped, in Japan. You know, his look is not trendy right now, but look at all the women who love his clothes. He will always be relevant.”

Walking on Madison Ave. the other day, post-Rhinelander visit, I overheard a princess of the Park Avenue variety espousing her distaste for gray.

She didn’t like it, didn’t wear it, didn’t get it. Needless to say, I was kind of freaked out by her fervor.

Banishing a color from your wardrobe indefinitely; really?

Obviously, there’s the classic New Yorker cliché - an aversion to color and a preference for black a la Delia Deetz. But even then, it’s more about convenience: black always goes with black.

But living life without the full color spectrum can’t be fun. Building a wardrobe without a color would be like building a person without a kidney or a liver. Especially a shade as inoffensive as gray, which to me is the perfect foil to something really crazy like chartreuse.

I’m wondering, have you given up a color after a bad experience? Did a school dance gone awry in lavender put you off pale purple for life? Or did your mother dress you in pink poufy dresses for the duration of your childhood, causing you to live in anonymous Yohji now?

—BRETT KANE

Yohji Yamamoto’s in-house press office needs Fall interns.

You need to:

- Love fashion - not shopping, but fashion - and be really excited to see / try on / play with / send and receive Yohji’s designs.

- Be RELIABLE AND RESPONSIBLE [caps by Yohji’s people]! Interns play a vital role in any show room which means if you say you’ll be there Monday and Wednesday you need to be there Monday and Wednesday. And probably Tuesday, too.

- Be available 2-3 days a week starting now.

- E-mail your resume and brief cover letter to alexis.brooks@yohjiyamamoto.net

Also, the internship offers a $20 per diem, which means you can buy your monthly metrocard in a mere four days. Or you can just indulge in fancy lunches.

There’s something strange happening on the runway at the men’s Spring 2009 shows, and we’re kind of liking it:

First, Vivienne Westwood sent out a rather burly man to model little sandals and an enormous gold chain (he was actually an actor/bodyguard). Then, Dean and Dan Caten cast almost all black models for their line-up, which will supposedly be the case in next week’s Lanvin show as well.

And just yesterday, Yohji Yamamoto pulled his own model stunt, sending out ten (much) older models down the runway to balance out the baby softness of the usual model boys, one of whom was especially regular life-sized.

We don’t know where this is going to go with the other designers, but we’re extremely curious to see if any of this will be attempted during the women’s shows (we’re not counting Gaultier’s Spring 07) and how it’ll translate if it is.

But so far, we’re tickled. Especially after we read Yohji’s message about the models - “Let’s be happy.”

“It is that civilised humans must wear monochrome. In other words, it is the minimum etiquette of fashion that you should not disturb other people’s vision. It is wrong to think that standing out is a good thing.” - Yohji Yamamoto, on his fashion philosophy, to Prestige.