Japanese Designer Issey Miyake is another name to lean, and not just because it's fun to say.
Miyake grew up in Hiroshima and when he was 7 he witness the A-bomb dropped on the city in 1945. He graduated in graphic design from Tama Art University, Tokyo, then worked in Paris and New York. He enrolled at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (renowned tailoring and dressmaking school in Paris), he worked behind the scenes for four years for Laroche, Givenchy, and Beene. In 1970, he set up the Miyake Design Studio in Tokyo, and displayed his first independent collection in 1973. He won the Japan Fashion Editor's Club Award in 1974, and the Pratt Institute, New York Award for Creative Design in 1980.
Miyake merged Japanaese and Western styles, and Bloomingdales devoted a section to selling Miyake's 'East meets West', and became an internationally recognised name in the 1980's. The 'East Meets West' collection was mostly T-shirts with Japanese tattoo designs and coats featuring the 'sashiko' Japanese embroidery technique.
In the 1980's he began experimenting with pleats (well who wouldn't?) to allow greated flexibility for movement of the wearer and ease of care. He won the International Award of the Council of America Fashion Designers in 1984 (which sounds a lot like a very well dressed crime fighting team imo), the Neiman Marcus Award in the same year (before he was an expensive American store, Neiman Marcus was an influential fashion designer).
In 1993 he produced Pleats Please, in which the clothes were cut and sewn then sandwiched and heat pressed to pleat the fabric. The collection combines technology, functionality, and beauty, and was on display at the Pompidou Centre.
In the late 1990's Miyake began working with Dai Fujiwara on A POC (A Piece Of Cloth), using new processes that harness computer technology, industrial knitting or weaving machines to create clothing beginning with a single piece of thread. A POC was launched commercially in 1999, but Miyake refused to put his name on the collection, insisting it was an ensemble piece, he sold it as a long tube of jersey and let the customer cut and shape it.
In 2006, he became the first fashion designer to receive the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for lifetime achievement, from the Inamori Foundation in Japan- he got a diploma, 20-karat-gold prize medal, and 50 million yen ($446,000). Which ain't bad. The Pleats Please collection was singled out as allowing 'unrestricted body movement while enabling the fabric to maintain its form', and the aforementioned A POC.
In 2007, Dai Fujiwara became the new Creative Director of the House of Issey Miyake. In 2010 Fujiwara worked with mathematician William Thurston to create 'beautiful geometry', with the mathematic thought providing structure and elegance to the crazy rainbow styling.
And that's Miyake!
Miyake grew up in Hiroshima and when he was 7 he witness the A-bomb dropped on the city in 1945. He graduated in graphic design from Tama Art University, Tokyo, then worked in Paris and New York. He enrolled at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (renowned tailoring and dressmaking school in Paris), he worked behind the scenes for four years for Laroche, Givenchy, and Beene. In 1970, he set up the Miyake Design Studio in Tokyo, and displayed his first independent collection in 1973. He won the Japan Fashion Editor's Club Award in 1974, and the Pratt Institute, New York Award for Creative Design in 1980.
Miyake merged Japanaese and Western styles, and Bloomingdales devoted a section to selling Miyake's 'East meets West', and became an internationally recognised name in the 1980's. The 'East Meets West' collection was mostly T-shirts with Japanese tattoo designs and coats featuring the 'sashiko' Japanese embroidery technique. In the 1980's he began experimenting with pleats (well who wouldn't?) to allow greated flexibility for movement of the wearer and ease of care. He won the International Award of the Council of America Fashion Designers in 1984 (which sounds a lot like a very well dressed crime fighting team imo), the Neiman Marcus Award in the same year (before he was an expensive American store, Neiman Marcus was an influential fashion designer).
In 1993 he produced Pleats Please, in which the clothes were cut and sewn then sandwiched and heat pressed to pleat the fabric. The collection combines technology, functionality, and beauty, and was on display at the Pompidou Centre.
In the late 1990's Miyake began working with Dai Fujiwara on A POC (A Piece Of Cloth), using new processes that harness computer technology, industrial knitting or weaving machines to create clothing beginning with a single piece of thread. A POC was launched commercially in 1999, but Miyake refused to put his name on the collection, insisting it was an ensemble piece, he sold it as a long tube of jersey and let the customer cut and shape it. 
In 2006, he became the first fashion designer to receive the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for lifetime achievement, from the Inamori Foundation in Japan- he got a diploma, 20-karat-gold prize medal, and 50 million yen ($446,000). Which ain't bad. The Pleats Please collection was singled out as allowing 'unrestricted body movement while enabling the fabric to maintain its form', and the aforementioned A POC.
In 2007, Dai Fujiwara became the new Creative Director of the House of Issey Miyake. In 2010 Fujiwara worked with mathematician William Thurston to create 'beautiful geometry', with the mathematic thought providing structure and elegance to the crazy rainbow styling.
And that's Miyake!
