Fashion designer and haute couture pioneer Issey Miyake has died aged 84, his design office says on Tuesday.
Miyake, who during his illustrious career built one of the most successful Historically Japanese fashion brands, demonstrate considerable knowledge of the inner workings of clothing. He also possesses a mercenary’s creativity that is reflected in his most recognizable designs: elegant, narrow pleats and iconic black turtleneck tops. worn by Steve Jobs.
Miyake’s cause of death, according to the Miyake Design Bureau, was liver cancer, AP reported. A private funeral was held; A public memorial service will not be held.
The designer was born in Hiroshima in 1938, and after starting with graphic design, he went on to study dressmaking and tailoring at l’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, a fashion school in Paris. After a prominent apprenticeship, and after he founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970, people started attention willing.
Today, unstructured fabrics, intentional holes, and misaligned sleeves are as common on the streets as they are on the runways. Miyake, like fellow rebel genius Alexander McQueen, was one of the key figures who predicted and spurred this change. Take a look at his ready-to-wear collection from spring 1995 — layered, skirts like skirts on delicate, pastel-colored cardigans color clogged shirtthe simple little dresses—The vision seamlessly blends into the present with Miyake’s special sly clairvoyance. Miyake’s thin ribbed suit is both mind-blowingly chic and the final word of flattery.
Miyake is aware of his original bystander status, and also knows its power. “I realized that my very disadvantage, the lack of Western heritage, would also be to my advantage,” he explains at Japanese Society in San Francisco in 1984. “I am not influenced by Western traditions or conventions. The absence of Western tradition is what I needed to create contemporary and universal fashion. “
