On August 5, 2022, we were asked to say goodbye to Issey Miyake.
The guiding philosophy of his designs was coined “A Piece of Cloth.” He developed each design by placing his focus on how the body, and the clothing that covered it, interacted.
In doing so, Miyake’s creative process began with a single piece of thread… exploring its possibilities to create new materials as the designer allowed curiosity and experimentation to lead the way.
When we trace Miyake’s life to this original thread, we find a young boy traumatized by the atomic bomb, dropped on his birthplace of Hiroshima, and its aftermath.
- A boy who overcame this adversity and sought to look not to his past, but to his future
- A university student who looked at clothing through an artistic, design-oriented lens rather than one centered on “fashion”
- A young designer inspired to create new fabrics, clothing and production technologies
- A design studio owner that encouraged and celebrated group collaboration rather than only the ideas of the leader
- An accomplished designer who led an avant-garde movement to change the modern conceptions of how clothing should look and what it should represent
As we follow that single thread on its journey, it concludes by forming an awarded icon in the worlds of art and fashion with a decades-long legacy of influence and achievement.
So after studying each detail of this single strand, we step back and fully realize a beautiful tapestry, the fascinating and unique piece of cloth this thread eventually constructed, and we wish to thank Issey Miyake for his invaluable contributions.
