Main Project Research on fashion designer Issey Miyake

In this post, instead of focusing on designer's background and history, I would like to introduce approach he has to designing clothing. These various rules/ values or characteristics will help me to create my own collection and define personal style for my future work.

Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake was strongly inspired by Japanese culture due to his roots, however his designs, remained very independent in a sense that his approach to designing clothing was formed by his believes in this area.

"I learned about space between the body and the fabric from the traditional kimono . . . not the style, but the space."

(Miyake, n.d. cited by English, 2011)

 

Even though he was trying to remain independent from strong European influences while working in Paris, he admired the work of Cristobal Balenciaga and Madeleine Vionnet. 

One of main principles of design for Issey Miyake is to provide people with wearable, comfortable and  beautiful clothing that that can be worn by people in a way they like. As Miyake says, clothing has many forms and uses, therefore, it is necessary for it to feel good, as well as look good. He achieves this goal through his great use of draping and wrapping people body in cloth as well as the use of range of pleating techniques. His garments feel like second skin and can be even worn by dancers during the performances as was already proofed in the past by Miyake.

‘You can wear it as you like—they’re your clothes’. 

(Miyake, n.d. cited by English, 2011)

When creating clothing, Miyake keeps in mind and applies the rules and features he has learned when studying kimono's construction. The use of negative space between the body and fabric is very important for him for achieving intended depth in the silhouette. He also uses diagonal symmetry line as many Japanese artists do. It helps them to reference the beauty of the nature that is very emotionally important for them. They also use an intuition to determinate the shapes and balance they want to achieve rather than basing it in the volume and shapes. 

One aspect of Miyake's work that I really like is the use of omnifarious materials nobody but him would ever use to produce clothing. Once, he has used a paper to create dresses referencing the paper lining used by northern Japanese people for warmth purposes. I really like the idea of turning the material meant for totally different purpose and creating something wearable and beautiful out of it.

Miyake's work has found wide audience of buyers due to its practicality, the freedom of movement it allows and the aesthetic/ outside appearance. As Miyake states, he was always trying to create closer, more intimate contact with his customers instead of just putting his clothing on the on the catwalks. He also doesn't consider himself as an artist nor designer. Miyake believes that could possibly narrow his creative field and future possibilities, instead, he stays open minded and positively approaches any occasion to challenge his creative mind.

As English (2011) said, "Miyake, Yamamoto and Kawakubo are often described as niche designers— designers who do not follow stylistic trends or directions. Unlike their European and American ‘stylist’ counterparts, they have not exclusively embraced the revivalist or popular cultural imaging that has inundated Paris catwalks for decades."

By this, English means that unlike European designers, Japanese ones think often more innovative, without any barriers of the past holding them back. They try to set new rules for the big fashion game and change the way we think about clothing. They define new paths and open new doors. Approaching the topic the other way is what they do and what makes them genius. Not strictly following the current trends frees them and not holds back from innovation.

My thoughts and reflection on Issey Miyake's work

What grasped my attention and made me started to study Issey Miyake's work, is the they way he sees the correlation between human body and clothing. Just thinking about the negative space and his approach to forming the silhouette was enough for me to want to know even more. 

The fact that he starts all of his designs from choosing the fabric and later designing based on it and not other way around as most of the people in the industry do, was an amazing thing to get to know. I have also found pleated fabric interesting to me and I have various ideas coo-related with it in my head already.

I would like to explore the negative space aspect in my designs and try to develop the shapes of my clothing by that.

I would also like to try incorporating the pleated fabric to my designs to bring more diversity in the fabric texture there.

 

Sources:

ECC, n.d. Issey Miyake. [image] Available at: <https://ecc.co.nz/designers/issey-miyake>
[Accessed 6 February 2021].

English, B., 2011. JAPANESE FASHION DESIGNERS. 2nd ed. Oxford: Berg, pp.9-36.