Issey Miyake has been awarded the 2005 Praemium Imperiale award for sculpture.
At the small press conference held before the ceremony he referred to his profound respect for Irving Penn several times, and reminded those present that he was in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped and in New York on that fateful September 11th.
Miyake was keen, as ever, to talk about his A-POC project and brought along two designers to assist him in a presentation of the concept.
He neglected to reveal how he intended to spend the $15,000 prize money, but did express disapproval of young Japanese women’s penchant for revealing their navels and a love of the traditional clothes of Japanese farm laborers.
