Issey Miyake
Founder of Issey Miyake and Miyake Design Studio
Issey Miyake (1938 to 2022) was a Japanese designer who founded Miyake Design Studio in Tokyo in 1970 and built one of the most influential design houses of the late twentieth century. He is remembered for treating textile engineering as the starting point of fashion, through innovations such as Pleats Please and A-POC.
| Role | Founder, Miyake Design Studio |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1970, Tokyo |
| Known for | Pleats Please, A-POC |
| Born | 1938, Hiroshima |
| Died | 2022, Tokyo |
| Current creative director of ISSEY MIYAKE | Satoshi Kondo (since SS 2020) |
Who is Issey Miyake?
Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer, born in Hiroshima in 1938, who died in Tokyo in August 2022 at the age of 84. He founded Miyake Design Studio in 1970 and presented his first Paris collection in 1973. His work combined Japanese and Western ideas about the body and clothing, and his company remains known for research-driven textile development that begins with the yarn itself.
Career
Miyake studied graphic design at Tama Art University, graduating in 1964, before training in Paris with Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy. After a period in New York from 1969, he returned to Tokyo and opened his studio. Over the following decades he developed several distinct lines and concepts:
- Pleats Please (1993): garments cut and sewn first, then heat-pleated, making them light, packable and easy to care for.
- A-POC (1998), meaning 'a piece of cloth': machine-made tubes of fabric from which the wearer could cut a garment.
- Later projects including the 132 5. line of folding geometric garments and the Bao Bao bag line.
- Fragrances, launched in the 1990s.
Miyake handed the design of the men's collection to his associate Naoki Takizawa in 1994 and of the women's collection in 1999 to concentrate on research, while continuing to oversee the overall direction of his company. Satoshi Kondo has been creative director of the ISSEY MIYAKE line since the Spring/Summer 2020 collection. Miyake received the Praemium Imperiale in 2005.
Influence on the fashion business
Miyake showed that a fashion house could build lasting commercial lines on a technical idea rather than on seasonal trends. Pleats Please in particular became a durable product family with a recognisable construction method, demonstrating how intellectual property in process and material can sustain a brand over decades. His black turtlenecks, made in quantity for Steve Jobs, also became one of the best-known examples of a designer garment turned into a personal uniform.
Issey Miyake and technology
Technology sat at the centre of Miyake's practice. Pleats Please reversed the usual order of production by pleating garments after sewing. A-POC used industrial, machine-processed fabric to produce garments with minimal waste and to involve the customer in the final cut. The brand states that its process begins with fibre research and original textile development, an approach that anticipated today's interest in material innovation, digital production and reduced waste.
Why it matters
For a fashion industry now exploring computational design and new production systems, Miyake is a reference point: he treated engineering, manufacturing and design as a single creative process. His house continues to operate on that principle, and his ideas remain relevant to discussions about efficiency, waste and the role of technology in clothing.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Issey Miyake?
Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer who founded Miyake Design Studio in Tokyo in 1970 and first showed in Paris in 1973. He died in 2022 at the age of 84.
What is Issey Miyake known for?
He is best known for Pleats Please, launched in 1993, and A-POC, launched in 1998, both of which used technical textile processes to create new kinds of garments. His brand is also known for the Bao Bao bag line and its emphasis on textile research.