Dear Shaded Viewers,
Nature inspired the current collection of Issey Miyake taking us from the growth of a seed, the reach of its roots and sprouting reaching for the light. The designer, the always positive and joyful Satoshi Kondo, sprouted fennel, sliced into strawberries, grew peas and was inspired by bulbs of garlic that he spotted at one of his favourite eating spots in Japan. Knits were seamless and sculpted the bodies while offering a variety of ways one could wear them. One of the textiles, MEANDER, is a fine rib knit designed in a way that allows its sculptural form to display many organic details. WINDING integrates the knit from MEANDER with translucent woven fabrics, creating an irregular form and was made from recycled polyester knit. RHIZOME is a seamless knit that can be worn in many different ways and has rootlike pieces hanging from the garment which you can wrap around the body. PODS is a pleated series dyed with the traditional shiborizome technique. Shiborizome craftspeople in Kyoto take the fabric between the round pieces, pleated, then tighten and bound by hand before the dying process. To minimize the bleed of the dyes, the fabric is bound in a specific way and with various kinds of strings. This series is an example of ISSEY MIYAKE’s original design and making, that integrates the traditional technique and its pleating technology. Another technique is SLICE which representss various vegetables and fruits and uses hikizome (hand-drawn dyeing) technique done by artisans in Kyoto. To depict the details of each print on the cotton-cupro fabric, the artisans used different tools to paint in original ways. AROUND features garment forms of straight lines with circles around the neck and waist. The wrinkled texture and the overall organic silhouettes are created by weaving elastic yarn into ring shapes in the fabric and shrinking them during the dyeing process. The quality of the colors is something that can only be achieved with garment dyeing*. The fabric used is woven with a blend of recycled polyester fibers, cotton, and wool.
*garments are first finished and then dyed. GROW is a bright coat series created based on paintings inspired by the growth of a plant. The bold-colored fabric is light and warm. The fabric is first knitted on a jacquard machine with wool on the outside and cotton on the inside, and then milled and pressed in small batches over an extended period of time. The resulting difference in shrinkage between wool and cotton lends itself to expressing the brush strokes and details of the patterns of the original paintings. LAYER OVER is a series of garments featuring overlapping rectangular pieces of fabric that drape across the body. The soft fabric is slowly and carefully woven with stretch yarn, which is blended with wool for better coloration. The coat and jumpsuit are designed in a way where the fabric over the shoulders naturally drapes around the neck like a collar. The corners of the fabric over the shoulders can be tied to create different styles.
A seed drops into fertile soil.
Asleep in the dark taking in warmth, water, and air, it awaits germination.
There, roots begin to creep downward;
There, a sprout emerges and extends upward.
The roots by nature force their way onward in every direction,
For the fruits that will eventually bear.
Then, storing the energy little by little, a stem grows into stems,
From which a leaf grows into leaves, and so does a fruit into fruits.
The time has arrived to see these vegetables for the first time,
Fully grown dug out from the earth:
Curled, twisted, bent, coiled, entwined, all fresh and lively.
The ripeness underneath their soiled skins smells like the earth.
They are all different, in colors vivid and bold and of forms free and uncontrived.
They are all irregular, and in irregularity there is pride and grace.
They are wild, strong, and handsome – untamed by conventions.
A video was directed by Yuichi Kodama.
