Fashion, Issey & I
I’ve always been keen to share my thoughts on the things I care for, but my care of structure has held me hostage for the longest. It’s 2023 and I’m so over that now. Here, I will write as I feel so you can feel as I write. Have no expectations, just read.
Bismillah
Last year, I found myself constantly on the Vogue Runway app as HJF (hjfarchives) and I hastily shared our favourite runway looks and unfiltered opinions via iMessage, morphing into the Gen Z fashion critics the traditional media talk/write about. Without care, we raved about our favs: Olivier, Peter, Glenn, and Maximilian amongst others throughout the weeks. We giggled at Ye’s Yeezy RTW collection, frantically expressed our confusion about Demna’s creative direction for Balenciaga and bickered over Sarah Burton’s Spring/Summer collection for McQueen. I found it all so thrilling — the subjectivity of design!
Fashion is an abstract concept; it has no beginning or end and is indivisible. It is ephemeral, yet always there. It is everything at once — time and place and space, individual and group expression, belonging and differentiating. It’s a phenomenon none of us can get away from.
“Clothing is the closest thing to all humans.” — Issey Miyake
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I’ve always had the desire to learn. So, having found myself consuming fashion content daily, I naturally utilised Google (as we all should because it’s free) and began learning the histories of the different fashion houses and their founders. At one point, I found myself scrolling through countless photos of the iconic Grace Jones head-to-toe in what the captions said was Issey Miyake. I was obsessed! I envisioned middle-aged Haddi head-to-toe in Issey and couldn’t shrug off the image. It was literally cemented in my mind. With this, I decided that Issey Miyake — both the house and founder, were my favourites. So, here’s to the King of Pleats, Issey Miyake — a survivor, innovator and anthropologist.
I’ll be real and admit that at one point in time, I only knew Issey to be the designer who designed Steve Jobs’ ubiquitous black turtlenecks. Forgive me, OK! Present me now knows that Miyake was a remarkable designer with a consistent aesthetic, who broke boundaries between the East and West through his unwavering goal of using clothing to unify us all. During the time spent honing his skills in Maison de Couture in Paris, the 1968 May Revolution (where he witnessed French students and workers ardently demonstrate against authoritarianism) inspired this goal of his, swaying him to vow to create clothing like jeans and T-shirts that were universal. And that he did.
Born in Hiroshima in 1938, the fashion doyen became a victim of the Hiroshima bombing at just seven years old after US forces detonated an atomic bomb on his city in 1945. Over 60 years later, Miyake wrote for The New York Times, ‘When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape — I remember it all.’ Being a survivor of this calamitous moment in human history, Miyake chose optimism. He was driven by unrelenting curiosity and a focus on the future. One could argue that the brightness and hope shared by his designs intentionally oppose the deep pain of his experiences.
I was quick to admire the simple philosophy he followed of “making things”. It’s something I admire about all creatives really. I am always in awe of those that can execute what was once merely an idea and turn it into something.
Through him, I learnt a lot about myself. I care for simplicity, functionality and comfort. His fascination with the flow and motion of his garments was inspired by his appreciation of dance. In many of his collections, models are seen moving on the runway in choreographed movements that best show the dynamism of the garments. His work for the Frankfurt Ballet led to his first “Pleats, Please” collection. This line soon became Miyake’s signature product after it debuted in 1993. His processes, which were derived from old and traditional methods, produced distinctively recognisable silhouettes that linked innovation with tradition and forward-thinking forethought. The pleated garments in the collection offered individuals ease of care and flexibility of movement. Through experimentation, Miyake and his team developed the ground-breaking method of the heat-pressed pleating technique which put the onus on the garments’ innate memory to keep the pleats in place. Both his appreciation and understanding of technology and how it could be used to create something new set him apart from the rest.
His focus on the future led him to devote himself to research after handing over control of his fashion collections to Naoki Takizawa, his former protégé, in 1999. Miyake remained the final overseer for the brand’s direction as he focused on the development of innovative textiles until his passing on August 5th, 2022 aged 84.
Miyake is a testament to courage and tenacity. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy.
