Mood board: There’s an industrial dexterity behind Issey Miyake’s designs. The Japanese label is renowned for its revolutionary pleating and cutting techniques that demonstrate technical and mechanical prowess. Yet for S/S 2019, women’s creative director Yoshiyuki Miyamae looked to the history of handwork. The first two opening looks featured wacky wicker hats. There was more experimentation with new fabrication techniques, the A/W 2017 collection featured a material that changed colour dependant on perspective, and for S/S 2019 he developed a new fabric called ‘Dough Dough’ which can be moulded by the wearer.
Best in show: The collection, arrayed with white, purple and aquatic hues, featured fluid and draped silhouettes in prints resembling spontaneous splatters of paint, or the markings of a mid-process screen print. There were long undulating vests and architecturally draped blouses, boxy coats and colourful tunics. Yet it was the ‘Dough Dough’ shapes that demonstrated a real deftness of cut and attention to form: striped summer dresses and plum skirts appeared both magically stiff yet soft, fluid yet foldable.
Team work: Who better to demonstrate the mouldable power of the brand’s silhouette than Miyake’s models on the runway? At the show’s finale, these women walked down the catwalk in groups, smiling and laughing and delicately crumpling and folding their clothing and hats into new, individual forms. §
