Tribute To A Fashion Pioneer: Issey Miyake

Aug 10

It was announced yesterday morning that Japanese fashion designer and the King of pleats, Issey Miyake, had passed away at the age of 84. As the fashion world pays tribute to a true legend of the industry, we take a moment to play our part to tell the story of a man that uplifted many.

Born in 1938 in Hiroshima, Miyake would be witness to the atrocities of the U.S. atomic bombing of August 1945 when he was just 7 years old. His mother would die of radiation exposure just three years later. It goes without saying that these events had a cosmic impact on Miyake’s life, however, he would not speak publicly of his experiences until 2009 when Barack Obama advocated for a nuclear-free world. He wrote in a New York Times opinion piece in 2009, "When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience," however he also stated that he prefers to focus and think on things "that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy". It was this joy that he would inject into his art.

Issey Miyake apparently wanted to be a dancer when he was younger, but this would change after reading his sister's fashion magazines! His clear interest in movement would become an important component of his garments. After graduating from the Tama Art University of Tokyo in 1964 where he studied graphic design, he entered some of his earliest fashion sketches and designs into competitions but did not win due to his lack of sewing or pattern-making experience. After this, he enrolled in the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne school in Paris and was apprenticed to Guy Laroche as assistant designer before working with Hubert de Givenchy, drawing 50 to 100 sketches per day.

Miyake opened the Miyake Design Studio in Tokyo in 1970 and by the 1980s he found himself as one of the most pioneering designers in the world, masterfully working with a variety of materials usually not used in mainstream garments. Miyake began to experiment with pleats, not an uncommon feature in fashion through the centuries, but he found a way to modernise the experience. After cutting and sewing the pieces together, they are then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press creating pleats that will hold their shape while simultaneously allowing flexibility and freedom of movement. Merging his prior love of dance with his love of fashion, Miyake created the costumes for the Ballett Frankfurt’s productions of ‘The Loss of Small Detail’ and ‘Garden in The Setting’, noticing that his pleats worked well on dancers he sent 200 to 300 garments for dancers to wear in each performance of ‘The Last Detail’. This would lead to the development of his Pleats, Please range.

Known most famously for his pleats, Miyake is also well known for being the designer behind Steve Jobs’ famous black turtlenecks which became Jobs’ signature look. Jobs said, "So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.”

Miyake built a highly sought-after brand that was minimal but offered high-tech comfortability, selling clothing, bags, watches and perfume. It was rumoured that a bottle of L'Eau d'Issey which launched in 1992 would sell every 14 seconds!

Miyake was a fashion great, one of a rare breed who change the shape of fashion as we know it, creating truly wearable art that is as popular now as it was back in the day.