Holiday Fashion

The inimitable, sculptural creations of Issey Miyake (1938-2022) bridge the gap between the gallery, runway, and street. Born and raised in Hiroshima, Miyake survived the atomic bombing at age 7 with a permanent limp, and soon after lost his mother to radiation poisoning. He became an advocate for nuclear disarmament in his later life. From a young age, Miyake was drawn to create and believed strongly in the interconnectedness of the arts. As far back as 1960, Miyake campaigned that clothing deserves appreciation for its design in the same way as architecture or furniture. After graduating from Tokyo’s Tama Art University in 1964 with a degree in graphic design, Miyake worked in Paris and New York under designers including Hubert de Givenchy and Geoffrey Beene. In 1971, he founded his eponymous design studio. Almost immediately, Miyake was lauded as a luminary. His work was soon everywhere from the cover of Artforum to the dancers of the Frankfurt Ballet.  
Behind this success was his innovative approach of clothing the body as a singular entity, greater than the sum of its parts. His creations were simultaneously artful and no-fuss, leaving both their sculptural silhouettes and their wearers unhindered by fastenings or defined waistlines. Though his designs are commonly interpreted as avant-garde or abstract, Miyake cited his greatest influence as the natural human form and sought to create clothing as wearable as jeans and T-shirts. In fact, it was Miyake who designed Steve Jobs’s signature turtlenecks, which he favored for their modularity and ease. In 1988, Miyake began to explore pleating–– perhaps the technique for which he is best remembered–– and in 1993 launched the wildly popular Pleats Please line. He developed experimental methods of fabric manipulation, mixing industrial techniques such as heat-setting with traditional craft to produce wholly unique textures as practical and durable as they are beautiful. In 1998, Miyake began A-POC, or “a piece of cloth,” a project to create garments cut from a single tube of jersey, creating almost zero waste. Miyake’s contributions to the arts are innumerable, though he viewed his own work with remarkable humility. He was a founding director of 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Japan’s first design museum, and was himself honored in exhibitions everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to Tokyo’s Folk Craft Museum. A creator in the truest sense, Issey Miyake forever transformed the possibilities of what clothing can be.

Issey Miyake long sleeve jacket made of silver-tone bugle beads and glass beads sewn together to mimic Chinese bamboo jackets. 
Label: Issey Miyake
Size: N/A
Country of Origin: Japan

Approximate Measurements:
Shoulders: 21"
Chest: 48"
Sleeve Length From Center Back Neckline: 28"
Length From Center Back Neckline: 31"