The Innovative Japanese Fashion Designer Issey Miyake

To bring beauty and joy through the medium of fashion was the motive behind the remarkable creations of the celebrated Japanese fashion designer, Issey Miyake, a man who created renowned brands of high-fashion clothing, as well as bags, watches, and fragrances. By drawing inspiration from his Japanese heritage, assimilating features from the West, and conducting textile experiments, Mr. Miyake brought forth unique designs and innovations that give respect and freedom to the bodies they adorn.

Issey Miyake was born Miyake Kazunaru on April 22, 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan, and bore the trauma of war. Not only did his family perish, but he also suffered from a bone marrow disease resulting from radiation exposure. Not wanting to be labeled as “the designer who survived the atomic bomb,” he rarely discussed the experience. However, in 2009, he opened up on this subject in his New York Times essay “A Flash of Memory” where he voiced support for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons.

Mr. Miyake was fascinated by experimenting with existing materials to craft the textile he had envisioned. A lasting concept developed by Mr. Miyake was producing modern garments from “a piece of cloth.” Toward the end of the 1980s, Mr. Miyake started experimenting with new methods of pleating. The shape and texture became permanent, and added the properties of easy care, compact size, comfort, and beauty to the garments, which suited Mr. Miyake’s design idea for the everyday lives of modern women.

In addition to clothing, Mr. Miyake launched his Bao Bao line of handbags under the name Pleats Please Issey Miyake in year 2000. Under Issey’s name, a collection of perfumes and colognes was also created. Some of his later fragrances, Eau de Parfum Fraîche, for instance, was certified vegan with a majority of natural ingredients. Its production process has an eco-responsible approach to minimize the perfume’s environmental impact.

Mr. Miyake was honored with numerous international awards and other forms of recognition in his lifetime, as well as honorary doctorates from multiple renowned universities and honorary citizenships of different cities. To celebrate Mr. Miyake’s amazing achievements, a grand retrospective exhibition, the Work of Miyake Issey, was presented at the National Art Center, Tokyo in 2016.