It is a sacred monster of fashion that has just passed away. Issey Miyake died at the age of 84 on the night of August 5.
After graduating from the Tama University of Fine Arts in Tokyo, he moved to Paris in 1965, where he worked for Guy Laroche and Givenchy. He then returned to Japan to found his own fashion house, then presented his first fashion show Issey Miyake in New York in 1971.
He plays with unusual materials
Throughout the 70s and 80s, he made Japanese know-how shine in the world alongside Rei Kawakubo (Like boys), Kenzo Takada or Yohji Yamamoto. He nevertheless distinguished himself from other couturiers by playing with materials that were unusual in fashion such as wire, Japanese craft paper, or horsehair and even invented an infusion of synthetic resin to create a series of sculpted bustiers from 1980.
An innovator at heart, he defines himself as a “clothing manufacturer” and develops several concepts, A-POC for “A piece of cloth”, an outfit made of a single piece of fabric and its work on pleating inspired the concept Pleats Please. All with the same philosophy, the garment must adapt to the wearer and to their movement, and not the other way around.
Many celebrities have worn his clothes from David Bowie to Mylène Farmer, passing by Steve Jobs (the famous black turtleneck sweaters). Like many of his colleagues, he is also developing a perfume, the very popular Water from Issey.
“An architect of purity”
Close friend of fashion designer, Jack Lang said of him it was “architect of purity, a man open to the world and humble, whose immense, millennial and futuristic work surprises, astonishes, moves. It is both sculpture and movement”.
The Japanese designer presented the fruit of 45 years of work in 2016 in Tokyo with the exhibition The work of Miyake Issey. For an excellent visual retrospective of his work, you can refer to the luxurious 512-page book edited by Taschen, simply titled Issey Miyake.