It was the 1993 when Issey Miyake set out to devote himself to new systems of fabric manipulation using textile modeling and new wear techniques. While keeping in mind his own cultural origins Miyake also drew on other clothing traditions, anticipating in the field of fashion the globalization that would be so much talked by everyone in the following decades, the changes were not only in the shape of garments, but also in the cut and materials used to make them. Today PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE presents PATH, a special series featuring abstract prints of the letters of the words “PLEATS PLEASE,” which appear to move freely on the body. MONTHLY COLORS: MAY garments, on the other hand, are directly inspired by the original PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE logo, recalling its bright colors and pastel tones. Thus vibrant multicolored silhouettes alternate with chic monochromatic ones.
“Clothes should fit comfortably – not too tightly – so that you have space to move in and think freely.”
Kenzo Takada, Junko Koshino, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, and compatriot Miyake wrote between the ‘70s and ‘80s in the history of fashion the love of research, today this appears necessary in order to think of a new woman confident in intellect and not in form: clothes must be characterized by fluid structures to conceal feminine silhouettes. Sharply contrasted with Italian and European fashion, which had focused in those years on women’s bodies to make them more seductive. The models wearing today the series dedicated to the anniversary of the brand, symbolize musical notes, which together form a symphony; the movement that once again, unites the clothes and the body reappears as the protagonist. PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE reminds us thirty years later that it is possible and necessary to continue to overturn archaic visions of fashion, undoing the opposition between Japanese and Western clothing, achieving the fusion of even very different cultural identities.
