In yesterday's post, an obituary for Issey Miyake, we mentioned his exhibition "Bodyworks" that toured internationally from 1983 to 1985. For this event Miyake designed black mannequins characterized by flexible or sculptural poses that emphasized the shape of the female body.
Through the exhibition the designer wanted to explain how, in his opinion, all clothes started from a study of fabrics, and with "fabrics" he meant textiles, but also alternative materials such as paper, metal and plastic. The exhibition included garments that guaranteed the body freedom of movement, but also sculptural designs that shaped the body.
In one section mannequins were suspended in the air as if they were floating in the exhibition space, some of them clad in the waterfall body, an acrylic fixed draped bodice with a skirt of the same fabric falling naturally into soft folds.
In another a group of mannequins in sculpted swimsuits in black, red and black or blue and black, seemed to emerge from a wave-washed beach. In this way, by juxtaposing soft and hard materials, Miyake created a dichotomy of materials and forms.
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