Yohan Serfaty

Yohan Serfaty was a Moroccan-born fashion designer and the founding designer of Y/Project. He established an eponymous practice by 2008, with a documented Spring 2009 menswear collection, and later worked with the Turkish leather company VSP. Retrospective VSP material identifies him as its first creative director, although the exact tenure remains unresolved.

In 2010 Serfaty co-founded Y/Project in Paris with Gilles Elalouf and became the first legal manager of its operating company, IN-CARNATION. The early label was organised as menswear but pursued a gender-neutral proposition through leather, elongated construction and close attention to fastening and proportion. Catharsis, Parasomnia and Chairman are the strongest securely recovered collections from his tenure.

Serfaty died on 17 April 2013. Elalouf maintained the company and appointed Glenn Martens later that year. Founder-period garments subsequently entered museum and archive programmes, including a Chairman ensemble donated to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs by Nathalie Serfaty in 2024 and an archive sale supporting a new ANDAM initiative in 2025.

Serfaty worked from leather outward. Deer, reindeer, kangaroo and treated skins appeared alongside wool, cashmere and crisp cotton, giving his clothing a dense material register without relying on ornament. High collars, long sleeves, asymmetrical zips and narrow or cropped lower proportions sharpened the body into a vertical line.

The early Y/Project collections tested authority and vulnerability through clothing associated with uniform, protection and restraint. Oversized outerwear and rigid closures could be countered by delicate surfaces or exposed movement, while dark neutral palettes kept attention on construction.

Presentation was part of the method. Parasomnia placed masked models on hospital beds before releasing them into the space, and Chairman used dress codes of hierarchy as material for distortion. The work was severe but not static: it used staging to show how disciplined garments could carry psychological and social tension.