Consideration abounded at Issey Miyake this morning. The park-set pavilion location was both a short walk from the immediately-before, way-out-of-town Loewe show, and also finely appropriate for the collection. The round stools used for seating were cut from compressed cylinders of paper, ready for recycling, that are a byproduct of the core Miyake pleating process whose commercial appeal is so powerfully enduring.
These seats were a gesture to preface a collection that leafed through several series of looks conceived around paper. The opening shrouded outfits emerged to the sound of dripping water: the oozing curves of the internally-fastened draping and wet-look gleam on the semi-transparent fabric was meant, you guessed, to reflect the look of damp paper. Next was a sextet of looks in taupe, white or black in a material whose mix of washi (hemp paper) and silk-rayon were shot with stretch yarn: this allowed Satoshi Kondo to craft fold-detailed silhouettes that were both angular and flexible, and whose surface retained the dimpled texture of traditional Japanese hemp paper.
Hemp-mix knits were used to build looks in irregularly segmented sections of jumbled tone and texture. Stiffish woven hemp fabric was built into tailoring with silhouettes much more defined. Single piece pleated looks were twisted around the models into body-wrappings: some twirled or stretched against the garments as they walked to demonstrate their springy, elastic cling.
There were a few gentle paper-related gags written in. One look was decorated with crocodile clips, and there was a paper bag handbag whose yarn integrated washi. Pressed leaf and flower eyewear and hat brims or masks preceded a beautiful series of wrinkled silk looks decorated with pressed floral prints. Delicacy and impact combined in a collection that left a beguiling imprint.
