ISSEY MIYAKE INC. Archives: Unveiling Miyake’s Creative Legacy

Throughout fashion history, there have been several designers who drew inspiration from their culture and heritage to craft unique and eccentric collections. Issey Miyake, a Japanese fashion designer, successfully implemented a sense of Japanese tradition in his pieces, while simultaneously garnering a universal audience. 

Miyake launched his brand, ISSEY MIYAKE INC., in November 1971, and rose to fame following his debut at Paris Fashion Week in 1973. Miyake was primarily known for his utilization of unique industrial techniques and apprenticeship, and his execution of distinct looks through playing around with eccentric colors and textures. In addition, Miyake used a range of traditional Japanese garment elements, like Awa Shijira weaving, Tamba momen cotton and sashiko quilting, and also took inspiration from traditional Japanese farming clothes. 

Miyake was also renowned for his inventive garment conceptualizations, as he introduced a more innovative side to the fashion industry that was rarely expressed before. In 1970, Miyake released the clothing concept “Peeling Away to the Limit,” which opposed haute couture and its establishment of stylistic norms, and instead reverted back to the stylistic representation of the original state of the human body. In this collection, Miyake laid a single piece of fabric, and let it sit directly onto the skin, ultimately allowing for a sense of coexistence between the body and the cloth. 

Miyake sought to emphasize that clothing is not meant to alter or transform the way you look; thus, he utilized such thin material to wrap the body, in order to accentuate the flow of the body, and represent the wearer’s silhouette in its most authentic and beautiful form. 

This approach to a more natural theme is continuously expressed in his later collections. In 1997, Miyake released his remarkable “A Piece of Cloth” collection, which essentially was a long roll of fabric that would reveal different structures of pieces, like tops, skirts and dresses, as you unfurled it. Yet, what made his concept so noteworthy was his sustainable approach – this tube was just a singular, long piece of fabric that could mold into any piece of clothing. 

The general objective behind this concept was to allow wearers to be in full control over the ways in which they wanted to style each look present in the tube. In each bundle of fabric, there were seams and stitches that wearers could cut along, and essentially fabricate the individual looks that they desired to wear. Miyake implemented the idea of an “everlasting” tube of fabric, as a means of avoiding waste, as each piece within the tube was meant to be utilized however the wearer preferred. 

When Miyake experimented with different materials and textures, he successfully released his iconic “Pleats Please” collection in 1993, consisting of pleated garments that were expertly crafted through working with both volume and adaptable fabrics. Each piece required larger sections of quality polyester fabric, with each pleat design being folded and sewn, and later permanently pressed through heat. What I admire most about these garments is its sense of permanence, as it never loses its original shape, even after years of washing or folding the piece, ultimately fostering durability that I wish all of my other pieces could sustain.  

“I am Japanese, and in my country we have remarkably strong traditions, which touch everything in our lives: art, ideas, life, nature,” said Miyake in his magazine issue “Universe of Fashion: Issey Miyake” in 1997. “We are able to make use of both technology and our traditions to make our exceptional fabrics.” 

Miyake’s extensive range of collections and concepts ultimately reveal his creative vision, as well as his general ability to combine both cultural descent and stylistic innovation to craft pieces that are still styled by many today. Today, we honor Miyake for his dedication towards expressing the human body in its most free and beautiful form, and experimenting with different techniques and materials to discern the relationship between a garment and its wearer.