Two Issey Miyake Items: One Ensemble, 1975, One Kaftan, 1984

This lot includes one caftan and one ensemble.

Issey Miyake (Japanese, 1938-2022) is memorialized for groundbreaking technological innovations in contemporary fashion, rooted in traditional craft, and creating a wearable avant-garde in pursuit of the modern. Miyake gained experience in the American ready-to-wear industry in the 1960s, but returned to Japan where he embraced and created the rising momentum of Japanese fashion globally. He began showing in Paris in 1973, among the earliest of the Japanese avant-gardists to break into the European fashion establishment. By the 1980s, Miyake’s name became synonymous with innovation and freedom, establishing proprietary fabrications and construction techniques, including heat-set micropleats and garments created from A Piece of Cloth (APOC). The designer created an ethos over six decades, which situated fashion within an integrated schema of design, “a wearable operating system, built to sit between the body and the wider world.”

This lot includes early pieces that embody Issey Miyake's philosophy: androgyny in the form of wide-fitting jumpsuits, technological innovation in multidirectional micro pleats, and the primordial simplicity of clothing made from a single piece of cloth. Delicate but never fussy, constructed but not constricting, these early garments establish a precedent for an expanded vocabulary of fashion in Miyake’s own visual language.

THE FIRST
Red cotton jacket with brown cotton lining, mandarin collar, set in long sleeves, single patch pocket, and open front; paired with matching reversible wrap skirt and red cotton pants.
Label: Issey Miyake
Size Label: Skirt, M/ Pants, 8
Style/Serial No.: Jacket, C34105/ Skirt, C54055/ Pants, C41065
Retail Label: Neiman-Marcus, The Trophy Room

Approximate Measurements:
JACKET
Shoulders: 19.5"
Chest: 41.25"
Waist: 40.75"
Hips: 41.75"
Length (high shoulder point to hem): 25.25"
Sleeve (center back neck to hem): 26.5"

SKIRT
Waist: 32"
Hips: 38.75"
Length (side waist band to hem): 27.5"

PANTS
Waist: 26"
Hips: 34.75"
Length (side waist band to hem): 41"
Inseam: 30"

THE SECOND
Dual grey striped silk caftan with crew neckline, kimono sleeves, two side slit pockets, and single top button.
Label: Issey Miyake
Size Label: S
Style/Serial No.: ES25064

Approximate Measurements:
Shoulders: 18"
Chest: 53"
Waist: 53"
Hips: 53"
Length (high shoulder point to hem): 45.5"
Sleeve (center back neck to hem): 30.25"

Property from the Collection of the North Coast College