Fashion Designers

Known abroad under his label name of Issey Miyake. Born in Hiroshima Prefecture and a graphic design graduate of Tama University of Arts, he won the Mainichi Design Award in 1976. Miyake is known for his unconventional designs and reinterpretations of traditional textile designs in various modern materials. He creates these fabrics together with his assistant Minagawa Makiko.

From 1966-68, Miyake worked for Guy Laroche and Givenchy in Paris and the following year he worked for Geoffrey Beene in New York. In 1970, he opened the Miyake Design Studio and in 1971 he established Miyake International Inc. Miyake showed his first collection in 1971 in both Tokyo and New York, and in Paris for the first time in 1973. He established a design company in France in 1979, and in the United States in 1982.

Miyake's work is often seen in the theater or in museums. For example, an exibition of his work was held at the Musee des Arts decoratifs in Paris in 1988 and in the same year he designed costumes for the Frankfurt Ballet. Since that collaboration, his designs have featured many kinds of pleated fabrics. Since 1990, one of his popular brands has been Issey Miyake Pleats Please.

Of his work, Miyake says "These clothes are no wrappings. You can understand them the way you want, you can wear them the way you want."

Among many other awards, Miyake has won the Mainichi Newspaper Fashion Awards three times (1977, 1984, and 1996), the Neiman-Marcus Award (1984) and the Best Collection by a Foreign Designer at Les Oscars de la Mode in Paris (1985). He is also a guest member of Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris. He inspired many fans to seek out degrees in fashion.