In 1965, having graduated with a degree in graphic design from Tama Art University in his native Japan, Issey Miyake would travel to Paris. It was in the French city that the designer would learn his craft: alongside compatriot Kenzo Takada (of fashion house Kenzo), he enrolled at l’École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, studying dressmaking. Later, having founded fashion label Miyake Design Studio in 1970 in Tokyo, he would return to Paris in 1973 to show his collections – a deep-rooted link to the city which would continue throughout his life (the designer would show in Paris until his retirement from the brand in 1997).
Inside Issey Miyake’s luminous new Paris store
A newly opened Issey Miyake Paris store, located in the exclusive Triangle D’Or shopping district, continues this legacy, and marks one of the designer’s final commissions (though formerly retired, the Miyake remained involved in the running of the company until his death in August 2022). Japanese designer and artist Tokujin Yoshioka – who has worked on numerous Issey Miyake projects and stores over the last three decades – remembers first being approached by Miyake in 2021 to work on the store. ’Paris is a centre of fashion and a hub of culture,’ he describes, having masterminded the new space at 28 rue François 1er, which replaces the former flagship on Rue Royale in the 8th arrondissement. Titled ’ISSEY MIYAKE / PARIS’, ’it is a space that gives form to this cultural energy for the future,’ Yoshioka tells Wallpaper*.
The 360 sq m store, which stretches across two stories, is located in the former headquarters of Europe 1 radio station, marking the first time that a retailer has occupied the space. The exterior is typically Parisian – a 19th-century stone facade with vast windows and traditional mouldings – while the interior is designed in Yoshioka’s sleek, modern style, with airy, white-walled rooms interrupted only by angular metal fixtures and glass vitrines. ‘I was thinking [about] combining contemporary elements with the 19th-century French architecture to express the contrast of time,’ explains Yoshioka.
‘The architecture accommodates the space which is designed to be minimalistic, [while] details are designed to give the impression of lightness, as if the clothes were floating,’ he continues. Of those clothes, the store will stock the majority of Issey Miyake’s lines including Issey Miyake, Pleats Please, Homme Plissé, Bao Bao, perfumes, watches, eyewear and more.
Though it is the store’s orange aluminium accent walls – recurring throughout and able to be viewed from the street – which provide the nexus of the space. Representing the rising sun, they are an attempt to capture the joy and levity of Miyake’s design philosophy. ’The aluminium walls are individually coloured with an anodising technique and installed at the site to create a large luminous orange wall, shining like the sun,’ says Yoshioka. ‘[They] express Issey Miyake's philosophy of craftsmanship and energy for the future.’
ISSEY MIYAKE / PARIS, 28 rue François 1er, 75008, Paris is open now.
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