Issey Miyake

Kazunaru Miyake, better known as Issey Miyake, was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1938. After graduating from the Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1965, Miyake moved to Paris, where he worked as an assistant and sketcher for Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy. He briefly moved to New York City, working under Geoffrey Beene while learning English. Taking his experience back to Tokyo a year later, Miyake finally founded his eponymous label. For many reasons, Issey Miyake is an influential designer, but his polyester pleating technique revolutionized fashion. Inspired by Isamu Noguchi, Miyake used layers of paper folded into garments under a heat press. This technique resulted in his iconic pleated fabrics, which informed the creation of Pleats Please in 1993 and Homme Plissé in 2013. Miyake died in 2022, but his legacy lives on through his eponymous brand and its sublabels like Issey Miyake Parfums, Bao Bao Issey Miyake and me Issey Miyake.