Paper. Pleated and compressed. Then waxed, carved, glued, sawn, deconstructed, peeled, moulded – until new expressions of form take shape, from chiselled stools and tree-like benches to ethereal lighting.
A deep exploration of the material possibilities of paper anchors a new research project by Issey Miyake, in collaboration with the Madrid-based architectural practice Ensamble Studio, and is spotlighted during Milan Design Week.
‘The Paper Log: Shell and Core’ is an exhibition at the Issey Miyake Milan flagship store, unravelling its ongoing material investigation into the textures, tones and structural potential of paper – vast volumes of which are created as a by-product of the studio’s signature pleating technology.
Delicate, sturdy, primitive, finely layered and raw, permeated with traces of soft rainbow-toned marbling: these qualities shape the prototypes presented in the exhibition, with Issey Miyake’s ‘Core’ creations (chairs, benches, tables) in dialogue with Ensamble Studio’s ‘Shell’ (deconstructed abstractions, moulded forms, lampshades).
The idea for the project was sparked when Satoshi Kondo, design director of Miyake Design Studio, spotted dense tree-like rolls of paper at one of their manufacturing sites. Sheets of paper are used to protectively sandwich Issey Miyake garments as they are inserted into pleating machines, before being compressed.
'When I first started working at Issey Miyake, this pleated paper is something I would touch almost every day,' Kondo tells Wallpaper*. 'It’s a very unique material – something that could only come from Issey Miyake and its creative process of garment pleating. I always wondered if there was anything more that we could do with it, to give it a new value that goes beyond recycling.'
The compressed paper ‘logs’ are the starting point. Measuring 80cm high with a 40cm diameter, the logs are made up of countless wafer-fine sheets with circular marbling in delicate shades of pinks, blues, greys, yellows.
'These paper logs are like a tree,' says Kondo. 'They contain time and memories – the presence of time passing and the memory of the pleating process. All these different colours are traces of the garments being fed into a pleating machine.'
Kondo’s first exploration was to cut the logs crosswise to create stools, which were used for seating in the Issey Miyake S/S 2025 show in Paris – paving the way for deeper experimentations.
A spectrum of forms, textures and shapes are displayed in the Milan exhibition. For the ‘Core’ installations by Miyake Design Studio and Issey Miyake, one key method explored was to soak the compressed rolls in wax in order to solidify the paper – resulting in sculptural material textures resembling chiselled rocks or time-etched marble, along with a more saturated colour palette.
There are stools with softly curved backrests, treated with glue; wax-soaked benches made from a clean vertical slice down the centre of a 'log', showing its raw inner beauty; and side tables carved from single compressed rolls.
A series of bricks was also created by sharply slicing wax-hardened rolls with a water-jet cutter: while an armchair shaped by bundled layers of unwaxed paper is imbued with a feathery sense of softness, its cloud-like form contained in a clean-lined metal frame.
'Sometimes it looks like wood, sometimes like rock or marble,' says Kondo. 'There is a random, unfinished beauty. It is always unplanned and surprising.'
Meanwhile, the ‘Shell’ element of the exhibition takes another approach. Keen to invite a completely fresh creative perspective on the possibilities of paper, Issey Miyake sent around 20 paper logs to Ensamble’s Madrid studio, with an invitation to freely experiment.
'In Madrid, they didn’t treat the log as solid,' says Kondo. 'They peeled the paper apart like tree bark. It became ephemeral, like a shell. They returned it to its original paper form.’
The studio embarked on a 'moulding exercise'. After deconstructing the rolls, fine paper sheets were draped over furniture, including a Le Corbusier chaise longue, before being hand-painted with hardening agents (resin and latex) in order to 'freeze' every crease, curve, fold in time and place.
The end result is a series of 'shells', translucent and light yet tangible – a 'second skin' embodying the outlines and traces of known objects, from iconic furniture pieces to an ethereal paper lampshade unfurled across the ceiling of the historic architecture at the Issey Miyake flagship.
Across this unfolding dialogue between ‘Shell’ and ‘Core – raw, primitive and never completed – the creations may be diverse in texture, atmosphere, shape and form. Yet there is a connective thread: not only through the infinite possibilities of paper, but also in the creative values that shape Issey Miyake.
'Underlying this project is the spirit of Issey Miyake – both the designer himself and the company,' says Kondo. ‘Core’ is like the human body; and ‘Shell’ is a piece of cloth. And the space between them is unfilled – or ma. The two co-exist and complement each other.'
He adds: 'This is just the starting point. It’s about treating all materials equally, not prioritising one over the other due to convention or given value – but having a fresh, new perspective. I hope people can appreciate the beauty of paper as a material as well as our original pleating process.'
Issey Miyake, Via Bagutta 12, 20121 Milano