Gifted people like Issey Miyake, the celebrated Japanese fashion designer live beyond their death. He died at the ripe age of 84, on August 5. He was suffering from cancer. The legendary designer he has left behind him a long tradition of designs and fashion for the world to take inspiration from, forever. 

Miyake was well-known for his signature pleated designs that were boldly sculpted and did not wrinkle. He was the person behind Steve Jobs’s trademark black turtleneck. Both Jobs and Miyake were close friends. 

The deceased Japanese fashion designer rose to fame in the 1980’s, and soon became synonymous with the country’s fashion and economic prowess. He gave a new definition to the fashion industry in Japan and drove the trends beyond imagination. 

A trendsetter in international fashion Miyake famously dressed the who’s-who of the world. Celebrating the human body through fashion was his Unique Selling Proposition (USP). He believed using fashion as a medium to liberate the human body from social bounds and relieving the humans from discriminations on the basis of colour, race, age or build. 

We take a look at the merchandise sold by his brand Issey Miyake:

Perfumes and colognes

Issey Miyake perfumes and colognes are considered some of the best available luxury fragrances by fashion enthusiasts. His best selling perfume, L’Eau d’Issey is an aquatic floral scent with transparent notes of lotus, freesia and cyclamen and juicy melon. It was launched in 1992 and since then he has experimented with a wide range of notes and fragrances to astonish and surprise his customers. Issey Miyake are some of the best luxury perfume makers of the world. 

Issey Miyake clothing

The iconic Issey Miyake kept breaking the fashion lines that he himself created and kept upgrading his styles and designs, through the decades. He participated in some of the most coveted fashion shows all over the world and was widely followed for design reference and renditions. He has designs for both men and women and his clothing stores are thronged by major celebrities and public figures. 

Issey Miyake brands:

Fête

It is a colorful women’s line that “draws on the technological innovations of PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE”. Fete means ‘celebration’ in French. The famed pleated design is the core of this fashion range aimed at the women, who want to stand-out. 

HaaT

The name of the brand is derived from the Sanskrit word Haat, which means a village market. The word also sounds like the English word, heart. It offers women centric designs and the brand was co-designed by Miyake’s former textile designer, Makiko Minagawa. 

A-POC

The brand was launched in 1998 and its entomology refers to the term ‘A Piece of Cloth’ and the closest homonym is ‘epoch’. The brand focuses on designs made out of machine-processed tubes of fabric that are cut into various shapes by the consumer. 

Bao Bao 

The multidimensional design and shapes of bags offered by this brand makes it unique and attractive. The pieces are so arranged that they can be organized in various shapes. The bag is fun, beautiful and serendipitous for the users, while making them practical to use in daily life. The brand carries out ongoing research to explore new possibilities from a unique engineering-based approach.

Issey Miyake Watches 

Issey Miyake designed watches for both men and women and experimented with a lot of elements, to offer some of the most beautiful timepieces. The watches are designed keeping in mind the workability approach of the owner. The design and aesthetics are created to provide the minimal hindrance in performing everyday functions, yet attracting attention. 

The Miyake Issey Foundation

The foundation was started in 2004 and it was the brainchild of Issey Miyake to bring his staff, global design leaders, to become deeply involved in the development of design culture and its ability to enrich lifestyles, using the many artifacts from Japan’s artisanal history,  including actual works, photos, video, and printed matter, as a source of inspiration. 

The foundation has two missions, first, to create and promote an environment for learning design and secondly to encourage international interactions. In short, the foundation in itself is an ecosystem of fashion designers, developing the talent of tomorrow.