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Issey Miyake: When Eastern aesthetics break into Western fashion
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Issey Miyake: When Eastern aesthetics break into Western fashion

On 5 August 2022, the world-renowned Japanese designer Issey Miyake died of liver cancer in Tokyo. He was once hailed as a revolutionary designer in the field of clothing, with his Lifetime Pleats and Baobao handbag collections becoming globally renowned and synonymous with fashion. He was a fashion icon.

From Tokyo to Paris and New York to the world, this Oriental man has managed to integrate the language of Eastern design into a Western context, making unprecedented innovations and passing on this philosophy.

Issey Miyake show at Paris Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2023, Paris, France, September 2022. Credit: Visual China

 

The Life Behind a Piece of Fabric

Issey Miyake, who burst onto the international fashion scene in the 1970s, has been called the Picasso of fashion and master of deconstructionism, and innovation has been a constant in his ideology.

The complex origins of his idea of making a whole garment from ‘a [single] piece of fabric’ reflects his childhood experience and has influenced many designers and architects.

Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1938. As a child, his family had limited resources and his mother made him a pair of beautiful trousers out of a flag, a cozy ‘piece of fabric’ that will always remain in his memory.

Unfortunately, the atomic bomb attack left Issey Miyake with a disabled leg and foot, and his mother was badly burned and died a few years later. Disaster struck, and Miyake always felt that he too would die young.

When Miyake was in high school, he often walked past two streamlined bridges in Peace Park, the work of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Later on, Miyake drew inspiration from Isamu Noguchi’s work and became close friends with him.

Designers Kansai Yamamoto (centre) and Issey Miyake (right) prepare for a joint fashion show at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Centre in Tokyo, Japan, 1974. Credit: Visual China

An understanding of the impermanence of life made Issey Miyake determined to do what he loved most in the limited time he had. As a child, he always stopped at a tailor’s shop that he thought was special to admire the clothes inside and realised that fashion was his passion. In 1960, when the World Design Congress was held for the first time in Tokyo, Miyake, still a student, wrote a letter to the Congress asking why the fashion design category was not included in the event.

In 1965, at the age of 27, Issey Miyake moved to France to study at the Ecole des Syndicats de la Mode in Paris to finally become exposed to cutting-edge fashion design work. It was in Paris that he was introduced to the ideas of the French designer Madeleine Vionnet, who first designed clothes using geometric calculations and advocated making clothes from ‘a beautiful piece of cloth’. This concept was the one that he identified with and became deeply buried in his mind.

A model rides a skateboard to showcase the work of Japanese designer Issey Miyake during the spring-summer 2020 womenswear ready-to-wear show in Paris in September 2019. Credit: Visual China

 

East to West

Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, the three ‘giants’ of Japanese design, brought to the West three aesthetic elements that originated from the East. The first is a subtle, non-explicit oriental aesthetic; the second is an oriental folk custom of dressing that is dynamic and comfortable; and the third is an oriental view of clothing. Unlike the Western 3D cut, the Oriental designers tend to adopt a 2D cut that is "flat", making clothes that are neither too wide nor too thin, and can fit anyone.

These qualities and elements are reflected in much of Issey Miyake's clothing design. It was his time in Paris in May 1968, where he witnessed the May 68, a social movement against mainstream culture and the war, that shaped his design in clothing. He found that he wanted to make clothes for the majority of people, not just the couture.

Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake receives an Honorary Doctorate from Bruno Gelas, Rector of the University of Lyon II, Lyon, France, 1999. Credit, Visual China

In Paris, he also worked as an assistant to the famous designer Guy Laroche and sketched for Hubert de Givenchy, the founder of Givenchy. At that time, high fashion and the so-called "upper-level" style were still popular. Although he had learned a lot from working under these masters, Issey Miyake knew that this was not the kind of company he wanted to be in.

In 1969, Issey Miyake went to New York and became the assistant of the famous New York designer Jeffrey Beane, meeting many of the artists who inspired him. In 1970, Issey Miyake returned to Japan to set up a design studio, and in 1973 he began to present his work at Paris Fashion Week, gradually making an oriental voice on the world stage.

Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake and his models greet the audience at the end of his spring-summer 1985 ready-to-wear show in Paris in 1984. Photo by Visual China

In 1988, Issey Miyake began to publish his Lifetime Pleats collection, a series of garments made from fabric two to three times more than the original fabric needed, which is treated with a complex process to keep the beautiful pleats in place. They are lighter, easier to fold and carry compared to high-fashion garments and fit everyone’s body shapes. Later, Issey Miyake designed a lightweight Lifetime Pleats costume for the Frankfurt Ballet in Germany, which worked wonders. Benefit from this experience, Issey Miyake decided to use dancers instead of models to showcase many of his designs, showing the lightness and movement of the costumes. As a result, the Lifetime Pleats collection became more widely known.

Issey Miyake show at Paris Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2023, Paris, France, September 2022. Credit: Visual China

In 1997, Issey Miyake hit another high point when he collaborated with engineers to launch the A piece of fabric collection. This is the name of both a clothing line and a dressmaking process, and is echoed with his ideology.

Through his lifetime of pleats and a piece of fabric, Issey Miyake became a recognised master of deconstructionism. But he felt that he was only making clothes, he never wanted to make fashion. His natural oriental ideas blended perfectly with the rebellious, egalitarian social trends of the West at the time, and the anti-fashion pioneer became the most fashionable of all.

Models walk the runway at the Autumn/Winter 2011/2012 fashion show held at the Galerie de la Concorde in Paris, France. Credit: Visual China

 

Spreading peace and love

Issey Miyake was a low-key person, but had always had deep friendships with artists from all over the world and had influenced their thoughts.

Looking back on his life, Issey Miyake once said that his love of the field of clothing design was partly due to it being a more modern, optimistic form of creation. Having lived through the hardships of war, he always wanted to forget the struggles and continue to export optimism, idealism and happiness. Clothing was the best form he chose. He once said, "In Japanese, the word for clothing is pronounced fuku, and fuku is also 'fortune'. Maybe I am trying to create happiness for the people, and for myself."

Models showcase Issey Miyake's creations at the Paris Women's Fall/Winter 2020-2021 Ready-to-Wear collection fashion show in March 2020. Credit: Visual China

 

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