Issey Miyake
(1938 - )
Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1938. In 1965, he graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo, where he majored in graphic design. Miyake moved to Paris to attend the tailoring and dressmaking school, l'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la
Couture. In 1966, Miyake worked as an apprentice under the French couturier Guy Laroche, and two years later, with Givenchy. Miyake moved to New York to work with the American designer Geoffrey Beene, before returning to Tokyo where he founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970.
Miyake’s first break came when one his designs was submitted to Vogue Magazine and to Bloomingdale's, a major department store. Vogue acknowledged his talent and featured him in the magazine; and Bloomingdale's was so impressed that Miyake got an in-store shop in their store.
His first small collection in New York included T-shirts dyed with Japanese tattoo designs and sashiko-embroidered coats. In 1973, Miyake was the first Japanese designer to be invited to present his line at the newly formed Paris prêt-a-porter show. His collection featured the layered and wrapped look that was to become his hallmark. Miyake creates his linear and geometric shapes from the drape and flow of fabric. Miyake later became an official member of the French prêt-à-porter organization.
Miyake is best known for his original fabrics. He collaborates with his textile director, Makiko Minagawa, who interprets his abstract ideas and together, with Minagawa and the Japanese textile mills, he introduced his most commercially successful collection, Pleats Please, in 1993. Miyake claims that simplicity is often the key to wearing his clothes, which are versatile enough to be worn in a variety of ways.
In 1999, Miyake retired from the Paris fashion scene and handed over the design of the Issey Miyake collection to trusted associates to concentrate on the launch and development of A-POC, (A Piece of Cloth). It represents Miyake's innovative artistic approach to the possibilities of creating fashion through technology by reducing clothing to its minimalist form. A tube of cloth is produced with the style and seams of the outfit embedded in it. With minimal cutting a pice of clothing emerges.
The Issey Miyake's brand was taken over by Naoki Takizawa, who had been designing Miyake's Plantation Line since 1983 and Issey Miyake Men since 1993. Miyake has stores in Tokyo, Paris, and London and a flagship store in Tribeca. In 2004, Miyake launched a follow-up fragrance to L'Eau d'Issy and L'Eau d'Issy Pour Homme, called L'Eau Bleue D'Issy Pour Homme for younger men.
