TOKYO (AP) – Although he’s behind one of the biggest fashion brands to come out of Japan, Issey Miyake detests being called a fashion designer. Maybe a designer, even a sculptor, but not that frivolous, trend-watching, conspicuous consumption known as fashion.
What he has pursued since he started in the 1970s is more timeless. His down-to-earth clothing is meant to celebrate the human body. And it’s anyone’s or everyone’s body – any race, build, size or age.
“The work of Miyake Issey,” at the National Art Center in Tokyo, is a moving journey through his creative mind. The show includes his signature pleats that transform usually crass polyester into chic. In another corner, mannequins are connected by a roll of fabric to highlight his A-POC, or “a piece of cloth,” series that began in 1998. A-POC uses computer technology in weaving to create apparel at the same time fabric is being produced.
Again and again, the exhibit drives home Miyake’s basic concept of a single piece of cloth, be it draped, folded, cut or wrapped, but he does not see the exhibit as a “retrospective,” says Midori Kitamura, president of Miyake Design Studio and the exhibit’s producer.
“He is always forward-looking,” Kitamura said, wearing a black Miyake sweater top that can be cut at the collar and sleeves along perforated lines, and a miniskirt that ruffles like a flower at her hip. “Trying to catch up with him is the story of my career.”