Renowned for its futuristic design process and aesthetic, Issey Miyake has bought a touch of 19th century splendour to the brand’s first Italian flagship store. The new 500 sq m space is located inside Palazzo Reina, the first historic building to be used in the Japanese label’s retail history with Miyake himself enlisting artist/designer and longtime collaborator Tokujin Yoshioka to conceive the shop’s interior.
Yoshioka, who worked under Miyake before founding his own eponymous design company in 2000, is the mastermind behind many of its retail spaces, including its Brook Street flagship in London; its Aomaya Reality Lab in Tokyo; and its recently opened Muensterhof space in Zurich. The designer also created a metal-strap watch for the label in 2015, and devised acrylic and cardboard mannequins for the ‘The Work of Issey Miyake’ retrospective at Tokyo’s National Art Centre in 2016.
Issey Miyake’s first Italian boutique is housed inside the Palazzo Reina in Milan
Miyake’s Brook Street location contrasts raw concrete walls against colourful anodised aluminium, so it’s only fitting that for the brand’s Via Bagutta location in Milan, Yoshioka continues this exploration of juxtapositions. Blue, orange and green aluminium panels and silver metal rails feature alongside grainy frescoes uncovered during the restoration of Palazzo Reina. Working in aesthetic opposition, the two finishes also act as symbols of the passage of time, representing both Italian classicism and Japanese futurism.
The time-worn hues of the ceiling and the earthy terrazzo floor also form a striking counterpoint to the the rails of rainbow-hued Pleats Please pieces, housed alongside other innovative lines including Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Bao Bao Issey Miyake and 132 5 Issey Miyake. The brand is famed for its invention of revolutionary techniques including the creation of uncreasable pleated polyester garments using a heating machine and A-POC (A Piece of Cloth), the creation of clothing from a digitally programmed single knitted tube. Now, with its first steps in Milan, Issey Miyake has marked its Italian future with a celebratory nod to the city’s architectural past.
The boutique is housed within the Palazzo Reina
Futuristic and classic design references act as symbols of the passage of time
Information
For more information, visit the Issey Miyake website
Address
Via Bagutta, 12
20121 Milan
-
Les Lalanne’s surreal world takes over Venice‘Planète Lalanne’, presented by Ben Brown Fine Arts, takes over Palazzo Rota Ivancich, with a cast of blue hippos, woolly sheep and giant grasshoppers
-
At home with Barnaba FornasettiBarnaba Fornasetti invites us into Casa Fornasetti, a private residence and creative hub, as he carries on its founder’s perpetual exploration of creativity and design
-
Niceworkshop explores the cycle of industrial materials at Milan Design WeekSeoul-based Niceworkshop caught the design world’s attention with its inaugural collection dedicated to the humble bolt. Now, with its first solo showing at Capsule Plaza, the studio aims to disrupt the life cycle of industrial materials with an exploration into aluminium formwork
-
’Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022’ is a definitive guide to the pioneering Japanese designer’Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022’ is a new Taschen book that provides a comprehensive overview of the pioneering Japanese designer’s ’poetic but pragmatic’ work
-
Issey Miyake’s radiant new Paris store celebrates its deep-rooted links to the cityIssey Miyake’s new flagship store on Paris’ Rue François is designed by Tokujin Yoshioka, featuring a luminous orange wall designed to evoke the rising sun
-
This season’s womenswear channels freedom and escapeThese S/S 2024 womenswear looks promise an escape from the everyday, and are photographed amid the otherwordly landscapes of the Canary Islands for the March 2024 Style Issue of Wallpaper*
-
Designer Ronan Bouroullec on his colourful collaboration with Homme Plissé Issey MiyakeThe multidisciplinary French artist and designer saw his colour-soaked drawings reinterpreted by the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake design team as part of the Japanese brand’s menswear show in Paris last week
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2024: Loewe to HermèsThe best of Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2024 in our ongoing report, from Jonathan Anderson’s church of masculinity at Loewe to a consideration of pleasure from Véronique Nichanian at Hermès
-
Issey Miyake’s innovative IM Men label arrives outside Japan for the first timeIM Men, a menswear label centred on functionality from the Miyake Design Studio, arrives in a much-anticipated new London pop-up
-
Pleats Please Issey Miyake celebrates 30 years of innovation with colourful capsuleFounded in 1993, Pleats Please Issey Miyake was pioneering for its knife-edge pleated polyester. 30 years on, the Japanese brand celebrates with a new capsule
-
Tokujin Yoshioka on his new light-filled store for Issey Miyake in Ginza, TokyoTitled ‘Issey Miyake Ginza / 442’ the new store is summed up by ‘light, future and sustainability’, says Tokujin Yoshioka. Here, he takes Wallpaper* inside the new four-storey Ginza outpost
