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 On Saturday 5^th March, at Issey Miyake boutique of Rue Royale in Paris, it will be launched an unpublished monograph dedicated by the Taschen publishing house to the Japanese master and to his prolific and hyper-technologic  Design Miyake Studio, established in the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.

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.