The idea of movement has been at the beating heart of Issey Miyake since the eponymous designer began the house in Tokyo in 1970. His signature pleating technique would come to encapsulate this feeling of dynamism: able to be folded entirely flat, on the body the plissé garments came to life, creating vivid silhouettes that transformed with movement, from bouncing ‘flying saucers’ built into dresses to complex origami folds and twists. ‘The body, the fabric covering it and a comfortable relationship between the two,’ is how the late designer, who passed away in 2022, described the nexus of his life’s work.
It is a design philosophy which has been embraced by Satoshi Kondo, the designer behind Issey Miyake’s womenswear line, in his acclaimed collections for the Japanese house since his tenure began in 2019. Indeed, his debut collection as artistic director, for S/S 2020, saw models twist, twirl and leap across the runway in an expression of uninhibited joy that has long defined the Issey Miyake brand. ‘I wanted to express the joy of wearing clothes, and the joy of movement,’ he said at the time, and his ensuing runway shows have often featured moments of contemporary dance or performance art.
The work’s premiere at the 79th Festival d’Avignon last summer
In 2025, Kondo embarked on a new project, collaborating with French dancer and choreographer Némo Flouret on the costumes for his new contemporary ballet, Derniers Feux (Last Light). It is not the first time Kondo and Flouret have collaborated; for Issey Miyake’s S/S 2024 and A/W 2025 womenswear shows, Flouret created a series of ‘dynamic performances’ which unfolded on the runway, ‘capturing the spirit of each collection’s theme,’ as the brand describes.
Derniers Feux, which premiered at the 79th Festival d’Avignon last summer and is now touring internationally, including performances at Paris’ Grand Palais in June, marks the pair’s most extensive collaboration yet. Kondo, who says he is drawn to the ‘in-depth engagement with the human body’ and ‘rigorous physicality’ of Flouret’s work, created a series of vibrant costumes which draw on the vivid use of colour and technical construction that define his collections at Issey Miyake. Indeed, despite the collaboration being under Kondo’s name, several of the garments and fabrics are reminiscent of those used in recent womenswear collections for the brand.
Satoshi Kondo’s original sketches for the project
These include colourful knitted sweaters with circular ‘peep holes’ and trousers with extra hanging ‘legs’, while other pieces are used as part of the show’s set. ‘The sheer vibrancy I felt in Derniers Feux – the choreography, the scenography, the fireworks, and of course the performers themselves – was the source of my inspiration,’ says Kondo. ‘In designing and making the costumes, my hope was to create something that intimately complements, if not elevates, the experience of Derniers Feux.’
Flouret describes Derniers Feux as ‘a reverie on the ephemeral and the immaterial’, which is loosely themed around the idea of dancers creating a show – ‘a nascent utopia carried by ten performers trying to give shape together to a world after the world’. Taking place largely on a scaffold structure, the highly physical work builds up to a pyrotechnical firework display, a climax of delayed gratification which is teased throughout the performance.
The pieces are reminiscent in fabric, colour and silhouette of Kondo’s womenswear collections for Issey Miyake
‘I wanted to work with fireworks, the images they convey, and the tension surrounding them: the fear of danger, the emotion and joy they evoke, that fleeting moment of eternity, that ephemerality,’ said Flouret at the work’s premiere last year. ‘The ten performers dance, play music, and assemble and dismantle the set. They are all technicians, performers, and spectators. They are constantly in motion. Dance is so central that we almost forget it: it is a way of life, the glue that binds together the images that appear and disappear.’
‘There is this sense of physicality – something sensuous – that I find apparent in Flouret’s work,’ says Kondo. ‘I see this project as an integration of our joint creativity, where I was able to immerse myself in the world Flouret created.’
The next performances of Derniers Feux will take place in Charleroi, Belgium on 18 and 19 September 2026.