1938-2022

Born in the Hiroshima that in few years would be destroyed by the bomb, Issey Miyake graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1964, before working several years in Paris and New York to learn the principles of couture, and returning in 1970 to the Japanese capital to found his own fashion studio. From the beginning, Miyake showed signs of a desire for innovation that would characterize his work: he experimented with different textiles, gave a new sense to the traditional sewing techniques in his country, and reinvented polyester jersey so that it would adapt naturally to the body. But fame came in the 1980s, when he gave a more practical sense to his designs and, above all, revolutionized the world of fashion with his pleats, which, instead of being formed on the fabric, were cut on the bias over the finished garment and exposed to heat to make them permanent. The result was a type of garment, sophisticated and eye-catching but always comfortable and easy to wash and pack, that seduced the global intelligentsia: the tight turtlenecks of Steve Jobs and Zaha Hadid’s sinuous trench coats.