"(Issey Miyake's) cape with an attached hood enshrouds the wearer, as protective and imposing as a nomad's tent. He has recapitulated the traditional Japanese students' uniform, adapted the traditional work apron of the Japanese housewife and exalted the quilted cotton tunic of the Japanese martial artists. A series of dresses is inspired by the colourful, twisted fabric which is used as a ceremonial rope to lead honored horses during a festival in his homeland. A flapping jumpsuit mimics the pose of a flying squirrel. A multi-coloured layered dress whirls open to reveal a shape familiar to millions of Japanese childre, the spinning top. His spinnaker dresses which are completed by a separate square attached to the shoulder, move like billowing sails at sea."
Susan Sidlauskas, Curator, "Intimate Architecture: Contemporary Clothing Design", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982
Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer known for his pleated designs, died on 5th August of liver cancer in a Tokyo hospital, as announced today by the Miyake Design Studio in an official release. He was 84.
Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake was seven years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Within three years his mother had died of radiation exposure. Miyake is said to have wanted to become either a dancer or an athlete, but he eventually found his design vocation inspired by his sister's fashion magazines.
He went on to study graphic design at Tama Art University in Tokyo and, in the '60s, he moved to Paris. Here he apprenticed to Guy Laroche, became an assistant to Hubert de Givenchy and, when he moved to New York, he also worked for Geoffrey Beene.
His experiences in the Big Apple prompted Miyake to ponder more about fabrics and how he could reinvent traditional ones. In an interview published on Domus Moda in May 1981 he stated: "In New York I was looking at what people were wearing, like jeans and I thought 'Why couldn't I do something with the traditional Japanese things?' First I started with quilted cotton, sashiko, worn for judo, kendo, sportswear and farmer clothes but I could not use it as it was – handwoven and narrow – it was too expensive. So I had it done by machine and I did the same with any other materials."
In 1970 he returned to Tokyo where he founded the Miyake Design Studio that focused on practical and functional designs, inspired by his passions for fabrics and movement. In that Domus Moda interview, Miyake stated indeed: "The idea for my clothes always comes from a piece of fabric that I design. There's a special relationship in my clothes between cloth and body, there’' a coexistence of cloth and body which become one through movement."
In the early '80s in Italy there were designers who had started experimenting with light designs that could be folded and easily packed. But Miyake took the discourse further when he started experimenting with pleated fabrics that called to mind Mariano Fortuny's designs and that held their shapes while guaranteeing freedom of movement to the wearer.
The fabric's ability to hold its pleats made it perfect for dancers as proved by Issey Miyake's costumes for "The Loss of Small Detail" (1991) for choreographer William Forsythe. At the time Miyake was working on pleated clothes, but his experiments with colours hadn't been successful.
For Forsythe's performance he designed white, black and gray costumes and used them as trials to monitor the levels of durability. The dancers energetically moved in his costumes, allowing him to study the weak and strong points of his designs and to eventually launch his line "Pleats Please" three years later.
Miyake's "Pleats, Please" line was followed by the men and women collections, accessory lines and fragrances. One of the first Japanese designers to show in Paris, he became known for a style suspended between Japanese crafts and high-tech experiments.
One of his most experimental lines remains Miyake and Dai Fujiwara's innovative "A-POC" (A Piece of Cloth) concept knitwear, created without using needle and thread construction but feeding the yarn into a computerised loom programmed with structural patterns that the consumer could cut along perforated lines, obtaining form-fitting garments. Designs from this line are often featured in museum collections or in exhibitions such as "Future Beauty" at London’s Barbican.
Miyake retired from the frontlines of fashion in the late '90s to devote himself to research, though he continued to oversee the creative direction of all his lines. His collections, showcased in Paris, often featured elements of performance and experimental artists as well.
In more recent years the brand developed origami-inspired designs like the ingenious "132 5." collection, made in a polyester fibre generated by Teijin Limited from chemical recycling by pulverizing, melting and spinning threads out of polyethylene terephthalate, but also interior design pieces in collaboration with other partners such as Italian lighting company Artemide.
Miyake was among the few designers featured in a fashion and architecture exhibition that made history - "Intimate Architecture" exhibition (1982, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
The exhibition was among the very first ones analysing the links between fashion and architecture and remained throughout the years an important landmark for many museum curators and researchers interested in the fashion and architecture connection.
The catalogue introduction stated about the designer: "Issey Miyake's attitude towards his work bridges two seemingly disparate approaches towards the manipulation of fabric: the classical restraint of Vionnet’s designs and the exuberance of Christo's 'Running Fence', an environmental sculpture composed of undulating sheets which reacted to the forces of nature."
That exhibition featured some of his early designs, that became some of his most iconic as well, including Issey Miyake's red plastic bustier molded on a woman's torso that ended with a short peplum of fabric-like folds at the hips.
This piece from Miyake's Autumn/Winter 1980-81 collection also became a focal point of his "Bodyworks" exhibition that toured internationally from 1983 to 1985.
According to Japanese media a private funeral has already taken place and there will be no public memorial service, per the designer's wishes.
A statement from the house hopes his creations, but also his passion for research, will inspire future generations: "Never one to embrace trends, Miyake's dynamic spirit was driven by a relentless curiosity and desire to convey joy through the medium of design. Always a pioneer, Miyake both embraced traditional handcrafts but also looked to the next solution: the newest technology driven by research and development. He never once stepped back from his love, the process of making things. He continued to work with his teams, creating new designs and supervising all collections under the various Issey Miyake labels. His spirit of joy, empowerment and beauty will be carried on by the next generations."
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