Opportunities to showcase the work of Junya Watanabe, the Japanese designer historically produced by the Maison Comme des Garçons, have been plentiful. He was among the illustrious guests at the Radical Fashion exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London back in 2001, which also inspired the homonymous publication.

Elements such as origami, metal detailing, and eco-leather are repeatedly used to create a strongly recognizable language that sits at the intersection of avant-garde cyber-metropolitan trends and the visual arts.

According to the philosophy established by the Japanese school—from Rei Kawakubo to Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and others—the dress transcends its simple decorative function, of medium and filter for social representation, instead becomes a creative opportunity and a textile device of complex realization.

For the current Fall/Winter season, Watanabe’s patchworks of matter evoke the ostentatious yet irresponsible luxury of snake skin, but in his hands, everything is a construct. The shapes, innovative and sculptural, articulate poetics that stand in stark contrast to any vulgarity. Silhouettes expand, as seen in the ‘spatial’ coat, whose expertly balanced volume takes the form of a spiral cape made from faux leather sewn onto heavy wool melton. Alternatively, they soften in a more subdued version with dropped sleeves. The dry eco-leather dress, essentially a long vest that can be layered over simpler outfits, does not shy away from more explicit elements of femininity. Unmissable the denim, with the collaboration with Levi’s, deconstructed and recomposed following the theme of the season.

This bold rhythm is a symphony of high notes and more subdued tones, a laborious composition between everyday contexts far removed from boredom and more vibrant and expressive social events.

Introducing another new addition to the FW 2023-24 season: DAWEI. The eponymous brand of the young Paris-based designer, Dawei Sun, was launched in 2016 after his graduation from the École de la Chambre Syndicale de La Couture. He gained experience as a collaborator with Balenciaga and John Galliano, and later served as the artistic director of Maison Cacharel.

He was a finalist in the prestigious Andam Fashion Award, the foremost French fashion competition founded in 1989 and initially won by Martin Margiela. He officially joined the Paris Fashion Week schedule in 2019, showcasing his designs on the runway.

Strongly influenced by French couture and the bold expressions of the Japanese school, Dawei provides a personal reinterpretation, bridging the unattainable refinement of the former with the more creatively rugged aspects of the latter. The result is a sophisticated synthesis of textile experiments, where fibers blend to simulate traditional fabrics. For instance, the chevron pattern is adapted to significantly more comfortable solutions, allowing for feminine silhouettes, sometimes embracing, as seen in bustiers. Similarly, wool jersey, guided by skillfully executed stitches, attains an elegance not commonly associated with it.

Wide or fitted lines, shorter of longer lengths, all skillfully measured and in constant balance.

His decorative choices act as dynamic structures that breathe life into character and originality without imposing themselves through excessive force.

The entire collection exudes a promising freshness, making it both wearable and feminine. Even in its more explicit expressions, there’s a refined and evolved quality that evokes a forgotten memory.

This is the first solo exhibition in its home town for Nicola Bortoletto, a young artist from Padua, class 1997.  An episode of dialogue between distant and, at the same time, close expressive experiences: on one hand the artistic manipulation of materials recovered from mainly construction contexts, such as tarred rubber and bitumen, on the other the particular sensitivity of IVO MILAN in identifying poetic languages within the so-called fashion system.

We encounter two different ways of shifting the focus from their instrumental or commercial origins to more visionary and aesthetic matrices, together, in the same space of the shop situated in via Santa Lucia 73, until next 10 June. A felt selection of artwork were one can observe how mater, in the abstract form chosen by the artist, also lends itself to existentialist analyzes and metaphors.

Part of the exhibition is a film made of moments, sequences of the artist’s creative process, and a graphic work, portrayed as a photographic book, which investigates the research and the creative process in his workplace.

The fulcrum of Bortoletto’s experience is the elaboration of the elements as the foundation of the artistic work, as well as the naturalness of the used materials. In an age strongly characterized by the physical dematerialization of the work of art, the sculptor has in fact elaborated a language able to tell the strong relationship between the transience of time, the human being and the matter.

His sculptures appear as assemblages and actions of repositioning, works of art in which the material entity becomes a preponderant element, together with the desire to magnify the poor material of everyday use, without any figurative purpose. They appear as primitive and primordial works, which invite to be discovered by the spectator, an exclusive and personal interpreter of every stratification, furrow and scratch revealed by the material.

Remembering, once again, that until June 10th it will be possible to visit the exhibition at the IVO MILAN store in Via Santa Lucia, 73, in the centre of Padua, we leave you with a brief photo reportage of the inauguration of Friday May 10^th…

Find the Spring/Summer Collection 2019

It’s Norway the homeland of a brand that, even in its name, reveals without surprises its undoubted roots: Norwegian Rain!

An unisex product, which in the apparent classicism of the forms combines basic features for both cold and rainy climates. The canvases, strictly made of recycled Japanese polyester, are simulating the typical texture of traditional materials, such as wool gabardine, and do not reveal highly sophisticated and modern properties, such as the inner diaphragm, which guarantees to each raincoat to be both breathable and waterproof. The sealed seams prevent the water from intruding into the fearsome joints, allowing a peaceful freedom, regardless the worst downpours.

It lies precisely in this discrete translation of the high-tech garment, usually characterized by colored zippers or improbable reflective graphics and relegated to the most technical sportswear sector, in an elegant outwear, the most fascinating aspect of this Norwegian reality.

Is the modernity of a northern European language sensitive to aesthetics, grateful to the Japanese formal knowledge which is easily traced in the ongoing article, the Raincho, a garment halfway between the cape and the development of the kimono. Contribute to the complexity of the calm lines, details such as generous interior pockets, with the purpose of sheltering the vulnerable accessories, from wallets to phones, adjustable caps in amplitude with composed webbing and buttons, small panels that can replace bulky scarves, concealed zip pockets, always useful to not soak the necessary and in case you want to give up the use of the bag.

Norwegian Rain faces the everyday life with real prospects, but also with an original determination to integrate with the most complex and creative proposals of the great contemporary designers!

Wide Norwegian Rain waterproof coat with the shape of a cape in recycled polyester cloth, lined in viscose and polyester cloth

Hip-lenght A punto B sweater in cashmere cloth

Wide lined Comme des Garçons skirt in polyester matelassè with floral tapestry

Mascha ‘classic Trippen’ ankle boot in cowhide leather

Altalen hat in felt 100% lapin

Knee-lenght Norwegian Rain waterproof coat in recycled cloth lined in viscose and polyester cloth

Long and wide Boboutic cardigan in polyamide and extra fine merinos wool cloth worked with irregular knots

Classic Comme des Garçons man shirt in cotton poplin

Classic Comme des Garçons – Comme des Garçons man trousers in wool gabardine, cupro lined

Dippy Trippen Shoe in smooth cowhide leather

Knee-lenght Norwegian Rain waterproof coat in recycled polyester cloth, lined in viscose and polyester cloth

Zucca longuette dress in stretch, nylon and alpaca

Mascha ‘classic Trippen’ ankle boot in cowhide leather

For several years now Rei Kawakubo, in Comme des Garçons art, has exclusively dedicated to clues, atmospheres and evocation her own representation of the ongoing collection. Emancipated of any kind of obligation towards the expectations of the global audience, the Japanese designer delights with her exhibitions that are closer to the art world rather than the sector of belonging.  The runway is not dedicated to garments but to textile provocations, architectonic structures that surround the sacrificed bodies of models lend to carry oversized sculptures, deliberately cumbersome and disproportionate compared to the available space.

Impossible not to ask yourself why or what is the plausible message content in this artistic drift. Maybe a self-granted freedom of expression, against the monotonous limits forced by the reality of the female body, or a subtle provocation versus a star-system hat becomes increasingly uncritical and exhibitionist. Certainly the dialog has not the purpose of selling. The pared garments are indeed extraordinary pieces of contemporary art that belong in museums or wealthy collectors. The runway show is an idea, a suggestion of the inspiring motif of the season which will be found later translated and much wearable in the development in the show-room. For Autumn/Winter 2016-2017 we witness then poetic collage of antique fabrics, floral tapestries that catapult the public in the XVIII century, the Age of Enlightenment, the rematch of reason over ignorance and superstition.

Rei Kawakubo, however, is not nostalgic and well-mannered, the collage is held together by metal snap buttons, by cuts and raw seams, diagonals that fragment the decorative harmony of time, implying elements defined by herself  as Punk, in the most provocative meaning of the term.

Synthetic leather, studs, constant asymmetries  and details that can be observed in the motives sewed on skirts, in the curvatures of the nodal points of the joints, reinforced as if they were textile armatures. And extensions, adjustable connecting rings, a flexibility in disassembling and reassembling, a continuously adjustable area in lengths and a delicate balance between order and disorder. It is not said that we can return to the original reconstruction, that many the alternatives are. Modernity and tradition, they also alternate in the processing, the ancient Japanese knowing collaborates with the most daring experimentations of the multi-layerd polyester cloth with rayon, cupro and cotton panels, in an encounter that observes how the material determinants and imposes the final shape of the piece, whether is a jacket, skirt or coat.

Needless to assume how Rei Kawakubo, in preparing an original and personal temporal syncretism, punk and Enlightenment, thinks of women determined to stay in their own time with the vigor and exuberance of who has a critical and imaginative independency

Abirinzà, a sound more than a word, coming from the recurrent Earth cadences from which Daniela Gregis draw the inspiration for this spring/summer 2016, brings us important clues about the construction of a collection particularly full of ornamental patterns. The designer with this sound expression, probably invented, evokes the Sardinia, with its rooted and complex textile traditions, the extensive and expertise use of the loom, but also with its rich heritage of memories and nostalgia.

Abirinzà broods over the memories of hard work laying them down as poetic logos in unexpected positions, becoming systematic patchwork gussets, where two different possibilities combine themselves together: fragments saved from the past and reassembled in canvas next to a painting or more slow and difficult weaving, nets and gauzes, loom and crochet, embracing each other in perfect harmony.

The designer from Bergamo certifies in this way each piece, claiming an authenticity in the acrobatic vicissitudes of the paintbrush, that stains and gives new life to the linen nets, joint with their negatives in cotton poplin, because the process should be watched in its integrity, combining itself with the first work. The silks, in the slippery brightness of the crêpe de chine, become bright palettes of strained colour, in the more contrasting red-blue shades, but also in the less radical blue-pastel light blue and white. Or the vichy, quoted also in other seasons, widen themselves becoming definite squares with more and more large spaces, always treated with the washing to contain the cotton strict rigidity.

Abirinzà are the open doors of the memory silos, abirinzà are the surprises regenerate in the changes of thinking, abirinzà is the just started spring, abirinzà are the fresh starts and the promises of staying well.

Discover the full ‘Abirinzà’ collection on our online catalogue…

In the middle of the Paris Fashion Week for the next Autumn/Winter, it should be reported an other very important acknowledgement to the designer who most was able to connect clothing to concepts as innovation, experimentation and research. On Saturday 5^th March, at Issey Miyake boutique of Rue Royale in Paris, it will be launched an unpublished monograph dedicated by the Taschen publishing house to the Japanese master and to his prolific and hyper-technologic  Design Miyake Studio, established in the 1970.

A book that, not by chance, is launched almost simultaneously with the exhibition that will be opened on the 16^th of March at the National Art Center of Tokyo, completely installed to celebrate the professional history and the cultural contributions introduced by the researches carried out during these years by the researchers team involved in Issey Miyake’s ambitious creative project.

A long, extensive tale of the different steps that have characterised of the well-known polyester pleating, today present in the most prestigious shops in the world with the bran new version called “Baked Stretch”.

The chromatic and formal possibilities opened by this innovative material manufacturing, so called ‘baked’ as the pleats take their aspects after a heath exposition process very similar to the one of the bread rising, reveal the maturity and the extreme autonomy gained by the excellent collaborators chosen by Issey Miyake, among them it’s not possible to not mention the Maison creative director, the young Yoshiyuki Miyamae.

Click here to watch the video.

For those who would not have the chance to participate to the Paris event, nor to go directly to Tokyo, they can anyway lost themselves in the different pages describing the vast and futuristic repertoire of the Japanese designer. In fact the book is already available on the Taschen website and in the next months it would be distributed by the libraries and by the authorized boutiques.

Reversible top and skirt .

Reversible dress.

Junya Watanabe Spring/Summer 2016 runway details, Dazed & Confused dazeddigital.com.

(Dress and necklace coming soon.)

We always brought to light the Junya Watanabe’s peculiar interpretative ability in establishing, in the form of dress, the predominant stresses of our time. Post-modern, cyber-punk, tailor-philosopher of an age crossed by very fast transformations, where, from collection to collection, plastics and brand new materials, parts of abandoned industrial landscapes, occurred, to give shape to his personal metabolization and to his interpretation of the contemporaneity.

For the Spring/Summer 2016 the Rei Kawakubo-Comme des Garçons’ favourite, still produced by the Japanese Maison, welcomed his public in an emblematic space of pressing social themes, the Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration of Paris.

Il Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration of Paris on the cover of Junya Watanabe S/S 2016 lookbook.

An important clue, a sensitive container of the present restrictive instincts of a continent in a state of alert for the imposing migratory phenomenon of which is witness. A suggestion and also an invitation to change the prospective through which we perceive the present, from an emergency point of view to an enrichment one, the one that only a flow of people and therefore of culture could offer, as the time has been able to testify.

And it’s the most problematic and hot continent to be celebrated and evoked, translated by the usual Watanabe’s modern glance. African and electro sonorities go along on the runway with the vivaciousness of the colours and of the decorations: very warm reds or clear, intense blues; kaftans and zebra-stripes dresses, tunics and shirts, garments able to face the highest temperatures, but also able to prepare us for more relaxed and evolved holidays.

Constant asymmetries, elliptic constructions, experimental leopard spots on Japanese paper and complex fabric movements at the hem bring Africa and its chromatic, formal and symbolic qualities into the metropolitan and stateless circuits, where any traditional aesthetic contaminate and regenerate itself in peculiar, as independent, anthropological expressions.

Junya Watanabe long kaftan dress in light polyester canvas with horizontal stripes ‘décor’ style and aluminium bangles, wide crew-neck, wide flared sleeve, big metallic bangles on the cuffs detachable with laces and loops.

Junya Watanabe zebra-striped dress coming soon.

Junya Watanabe multi-layers rings necklace from the bigger to the smaller in shiny polyurethane and polyester imitation leather, it could be placed along the shoulders.

Photography from Junya Watanabe S/S 2016 lookbook.

Junya Watanabe asymmetric robe manteau dress in polyester organza with tone on tone small spots processing in Japanese paper, wide half-closed shirt neck, ¾ flared sleeve, buttons closure till the bottom, spiral construction.

Junya Watanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya Watanabe long and wide shirt in light ramié canvas, raglan shoulder, long sleeve, sack line on the back and straight on the front.

A punto B long trousers in cotton poplin, elastic band and light curling at the band, welt vertical side pockets.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya Watanabe long and wide shirt in light ramié canvas, raglan shoulder, long sleeve, sack line on the back and straight on the front.

A punto B wide linen canvas trousers, elastic band and light curling at the belt, welt vertical side pockets.

Classic’ Trippen ankle-length boot in soft elk leather with rounded tip, diagonal zip on the upper part, side zip closure, removable cork insole, rubber sole.

Junya Watanabe wide tunic in light ramié canvas, shirt neck with half-closed closure, flared line with stiff band, sack shape with central upside down V stitching and on the back at the bottom.

Junya Waatanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Junya Watanabe wide tunic in light cotton canvas, crew-neck with back small button, flared line with stiff band, sack shape with side stitching towards the inside at the bottom.

Junya Waatanabe 5 pockets jeans-like leggings in light stretch linen and polyurethane canvas, over-the-ankle length, zip and button closure, belt loops.

Massimo Giussani man shoe in cowhide leather entirely hand-painted with two colours one shading on the other, with laces and tongue with inner elastic band, leather sole painted in the same colours of the upper part.

Top 132 5. Issey Miyake spring/summer 2016.

Despite the slow, endless moving forward of the winter, in the shop the season sales introduce and overlap the joyful arrival of the next Spring/Summer. An impressive Trippen delivery makes us guess the incoming chromatic presences and, for the first time in Europe, the 132 5. Issey Miyake origami lines, anticipates the most clever developments of the extraordinary Japanese Maison!

Trippen shoes spring/summer 2016 lined up ready to be photigraphed.

Top 132 5. Issey Miyake spring/summer 2016.

1 One-dimensional

3 Three-dimensional

2 Shape

5 Body

But also Daniela Gregis, Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe are waiting for their turn of being shot and added to our online catalogue…

Junya Watanabe spring/summer 2016

The well-curated Daniela Gregis packaging.

Hand-woven Daniela Gregis bag in wicker and vichy spring/summer 2016.

The first arrivals of Comme des Garçons, Daniela Gregis, Junya Watanabe and 1 3 2 5.Issey Miyake waiting to be photographed  for our online catalogue.

And after these fleeting, as confused, new arrivals previews, the rigid temperatures allow us to still dwell upon the many winter possibilities… Outfits provided by the knowledge of months of experimentations, revelations and fittings with the shop customers. Often unique pieces, of impossible to find design, being timeless they are combinable with garments from the past winters, a strategic and gratifying finishing to our refined wardrobes.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label long and heavy sweater in malfilè wool, cotton, polyamide and acrylic with big contrasting triangles, wide crew-neck.

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania short pants-style miniskirt in polyester and elastane canvas with  a worn-out velvet effect printing, inner buttons closure, outer buttons diagonal closure, 2 side pockets, central back slit.

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania viscose and spandex leggings with Union Jack printing.

Vivienne Westwood Mantero big scarf in acrylic and wool big thread loom weft with squares pattern, fringes along the edges, l 200 cm x h 55 cm.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather slightly creased on the instep, side zip closure, new ‘spot’ sole with two rubber blocks and non-slip base made on iron stamp.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto wide coat in loom worked wollen multicolour cloth, single-breasted, half-closed crew-neck, frayed edges, two diagonal vertical pockets, press buttons closure.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto long, wide and asymmetric sweater in knitted wool with a light bouclé effect, turtle-neck with V opening on the front, horizontal ribbing on the breast and on the shoulder, diagonal point at the bottom, side stitching, one side slit, asymmetric line.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto spencer jacket in wool gabardine with cuff and hem bands, single-breasted with lapels, two vertical welt pockets.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto wide, large and asymmetric divided skirt in light pale multicolour wool canvas, with brace, one vertical welt pockets, zip and drawstring side closure.

Yohji Yamamoto wide stole in knitted wool and nylon worked with stitched ribbed fringes, fringes at the far ends, l 216 cm x h 70 cm.

Trippen ankle-boot in cowhide leather with new ‘spot’ sole with two rubber blocks and non-slipper base made on iron stamps, vertical elastic bands from the sole to the ankle.

Yohji Yamamoto short cardigan in light knitted wool, polyamide and viscose with abstract-geometrical texture, zip closure, drop-shaped neck, wider on the side, hem band, wide kimono sleeve.

Yohji Yamamoto short jersey and gabardine wool dress, tight-fitting t-shirt bodice with wide draped fabric sewn at the neck and adjustable, long sleeve.

Yohji Yamamoto classic twill trousers printed with artist Yasuto Sasada drawings, tight at the bottom, 2 front diagonal pockets and 2 welt pockets with small button on the back, zip and button closure, belt loops and inserted strap with buckle, lined.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather slightly creased on the instep, side zip closure, new ‘spot’ sole with two rubber blocks and non-slip base made on iron stamp.

Rick Owens sculpture padded jacket longer on the sides in polyamide with an horizontal pleating processing, geometrical stitching on the front, single-breasted with wide triangular lapels, three snaps buttons closure.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Trippen ankle-boot in washed and treated cowhide leather with three blocks heel, side zip closure, wide sole, instep upper part higher on the back.

Junya Watanabe mohair sweater with ribbed pyramid origami in wool and polyester along the sleeves and the shoulders, crew-neck, band on the cuffs, neck and at the bottom.

Junya Watanabe knee-length wide full skirt with rounded large pleats in wool flannel, side closure with zip and hook.

Shu Moriyama short and wide jacket in embossed wool canvas with patterns in two different colours, crew-neck, single-breasted with press buttons.

Andrea Cortella rew-neck sweater in stitched Cashwool extra fine Merino wool with pyramid shaped points on the front, knitted band at the bottom, on the cuffs and on the neck, straight line.

Issey Miyake skirt in steam stretch pleated bicolour polyester and polyurethane with a narrow crystal effect, elastic band at the belt, wide and flared line, two welt pockets, reversible and wearable as a cape.

‘Classic Trippen’ ankle boot in oiled suede cowhide leather with strings and small hooks, removable cork insole, rubber sole.

Issey Miyake pleated garments.

Junya Watanabe and Comme des Garçons garments.

Gudrun & Gudrun knitwear.

Gudrun & Gudrun open jacket style cardigan in heavy knitted alpaca, dropped stitching working on the shoulder and along the sleeve.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto long divided skirt in cotton canvas with vertical stitched pleats, 2 diagonal side welt pockets, zip and button closure.

Vivienne Westwood Mantero big scarf in acrylic and wool big thread loom weft with squares pattern, fringes along the edges, l 200 cm x h 55 cm.

Trippen ankle boot in drummed cowhide leather and traditional Japanese sole, parallel stratifications effect on the upper instep, zip closure, traditional rubber Japanese sole.

Forme D’Expression wide pea coat in damask wool cloth with checks, shawl neck, shorter on the back, points on the front, pointed bottom, closure with button on the neck or on the side.

Boboutic short sweater in knitted extra fine wool, polyamide and yak, with irregular weft thread in a different colour at the bottom and on the sleeves, crew-neck with band, band on the cuffs and at the hem, soft line.

Forme D’Expression wool jersey trousers with waistband and knee-length doubled leg, soft line, two side welt pockets and one patch pocket on the back.

Forme D’Expression high closed neck warmer in doubled knitted soft wool and cashmere in two different colours inside-outside, reversible.

Kate Sheridan rectangular backpack in waterproof British Millerain with leather adjustable shoulder straps, flap and adjustable leather ribbon closure, internal open pockets and internal zip pocket, h 43 cm x l 38 cm.

Daniela Gregis egg-shaped handmade sweater in straight stitched mohair and silk, wide crew-neck, long sleeve, neck, hem and cuffs with ribbed edge.

Daniela Gregis calf-length skirt in double wool crêpe with dark ‘storm’ printing, cut out hem, waistband at the belt, curled at the waist.

Trippen ankle boot in treated and washed cowhide leather, winglet with a pleat effect on the side, turn-up at the ankle, inner zip closure, two shell rubber sole.

Reinhard Plank medium-brimmed bowler hat in waxed and varnished lapin felt with a ‘rock’ effect.

Photography by Sari Milan.

Teamwork, environmental ethos, experimentation and strong pragmatism, light and joy, the guidelines of a Maison built around the enlightened principles of its founder, Issey Miyake.

Issey Miyake Autumn/Winter 2015-16: runway show finale.

Against the perishing and obsolete destiny of fashion, against the fact that clothing reduces itself to a simply instrument of status and wealth affirmation, Miyake firmly believes in the rational and spacial nature of dressing up. The dress exists in function of the physicality of whom will wear it, it’s bounded to people life and daily movement. So it must match innovation and comfort criteria, because our existences proceed into space and time.

Pictures from the Pleats Please Autumn/Winter 2015-16 catalogue.

In opposition to the ‘designer mythicization’, Miyake put together a team of experts that goes ahead and experiments through the continuous exchange of information and skills. In fact only the contamination of ideas and the flow of consciousness could generate that innovation levels already became exclusive heritage of Miyake Maison.

Machines at work in Miyake Design Studio: pictures from ‘Pleats Please Issey Miyake, published by Taschen.

The creative process starts trying to solve three fundamental problems: to minimise the industrial waste starting from just one piece of fabric; to give back the three-dimensionality of the human body through the fabric bi-dimensionality and to guarantee to the other people practicality, movement and an exclusive perception of the self. Inside this frame it has developed the engineering and textile experimentations that brought to the realization of the already very famous pleating. During four decades Miyake together with its staff tested new materials, invented formal abstractions only made possible by the infinite fabric plasticity and by the high-tech machines built up over time. With the different lines, from the one carrying his name that shows the most avant-garde and poetic experimentations of the new steam stretch pleating, to Pleats Please, to Cauliflower, developed in just one size, to the Bao Bao bags, where the triangle modular repetition is the remarkable sign of an highly futuristic project, or moreover the latest 132 5. Issey Miyake (available in our shop from next Spring/Summer), in recycled pet, pressed like origami paper, Issey Miyake and his Design Studio are ambitious guests of the most prestigious contemporary art galleries.

Issey Miyake Autumn/Winter 2015-16

132 5. Issey Miyake

So we can’t be taken away from point out, for whom will have the chance to be in Tokyo between next March and next June, the unmissable exhibition hold at the National Art Center:

MIYAKE ISSEY EXHIBITION: The Work of Miyake Issey

One of the most complete overview of Issey Miyake work and on the solutions, always in evolution, developed by his prolific creative team. And for the very first time the complex productive processes that allow the realization of the different expression of the most famous pleating will be shown and explained.

An overview from our catalogue Autumn/Winter 2015-16:

Issey Miyake calf-length coat in wool and polyester squares with a ribbon effect, shirt neck, two buttons closure, two welt pockets, lined.

Bao Bao Issey Miyake big squared shopper bag made by polish PRISMA PVC triangular plates repeated trough an origami calculation on a polyester base, double adjustable handles, big inner zip pocket, l 39 cm x h 39 cm.

Y’s Yohji Yamamoto tight leg jeans trousers in creased cotton canvas, 2 welt vertical pockets, 3 patch pockets on the back with and 2 overlapped, belt loops, zip and button closure.

Vivienne Westwood Mantero big scarf in very light new wool and silk gauze with Union Jack printing, small fringes along the edges, l 132 cm x h 100 cm.

Trippen ankle boot in soft cowhide leather with laces and stripes on a side, classic no-slip rubber sole with rounded toe.

Issey Miyake rectangular shawl in steam stretch pleated polyester and polyurethane with a kaleidoscope effect, buttons on the four points, wearable both sides and in many different ways, h 70 cm x l 130 cm.

Un-Namable long and asymmetric skirt in a paper effect polyester fabric, with pleats in different directions, with press buttons.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake skirt in stiff and narrow pleated polyester with a crystal effect, elastic band at the belt, wide and flared line, two welt pockets, wearable as a cape.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake ribbed steam stretch pleated polyester jacket, wide shawled lapels, fitted at the waist, button closure.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake straight pleated top with diagonal multicolour pattern, long bat sleeve, V neck, rounded hem.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Issey Miyake long top in  melange narrow wave pleated polyester and wool, V neck, egg line.

A punto B low crotch and low waist trousers in heavy cotton, zip and button closure, wide and moulded slightly tightening at the bottom, two vertical welt pockets.

‘Classic Trippen’ ankle boot in oiled suede cowhide leather with strings and small hooks, removable cork insole, rubber sole.

Issey Miyake top in horizontal narrow and grained bicolour pleated polyester, wide and doubled cowl neck, diagonal pleating on the breast till the sleeve.

Issey Miyake large balloon trousers in narrow wave pleated polyester, tighter at the bottom, elastic band at the belt, two side welt pockets.

Issey Miyake squared shawl in stiff and narrow pleated polyester with a crystal effect, hole closure, h 80 cm x l 87 cm.

Issey Miyake hip-length jacket in stiff and narrow bicolour pleated polyester, single-breasted, lapels with detached points stitched on the neck, button closure, pointed sleeve on the cuffs, flared line.

Issey Miyake large balloon trousers in narrow wave pleated polyester, tighter at the bottom, elastic band at the belt, two side welt pockets.

Issey Miyake wide pea coat in  narrow wave pleated polyester with a multicolour optical effect, lapels, two buttons closure, ¾ flared sleeve, egg line.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Issey Miyake short and wide jacket in horizontal narrow and grained bicolour pleated polyester, single-breasted, shawl and doubled neck, button closure.

Un-Namable long and asymmetric skirt in a paper effect polyester fabric, with pleats in different directions, with press buttons.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake hip-length jacket in narrow wave pleated polyester with a multicolour optical effect, single-breasted with lapels, buttons closure.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake bolero jacket in tridimensional pleated polyester, shawl neck with semi-circular edges pleating on the inside, button closure, ¾ flared sleeve.

Issey Miyake wool and polyurethane crêpe stretch trousers with contrasting colour belt, two diagonal pockets, two welt pockets on the back, diagonal panel stitched on the front, two buttons and zip side closure, soft line.

Issey Miyake calf-length asymmetric dress in horizontal narrow and grained bicolour pleated polyester, wide and doubled cowl neck, diagonal pleating on the breast till the sleeve.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake top in nylon and cotton A-poc bicolour fabric, asymmetric line, boat neck, flared sleeve, soften colours, frayed hem.

Issey Miyake stretch polyester and wool jeans-like trousers with small checks texture, two darts on the front, two side welt pockets, zip and button closure.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.

Issey Miyake calf-length nylon and cotton A-poc bicolour tunic dress, ¾ sleeve, amphora line, boat neck.

Issey Miyake small bucket bag in bicolour stiff soften and shiny polyester pleating, origami shape with three-dimensional star effect, string closure, small leather shoulder strap.

Trippen ankle boot in soft suede cowhide leather, with a comma elastic both sides of the ankle, with 2 shells sole.