Big brand, big venue – this morning, guests packed into a large building in Paris to calm, undulating music, and most of them missed the Homme Plisse Issey Miyake show starting as the first two models walked out of the wings in unison, with no change of beat. From there, models filed out and a ‘usual’ show began – until they all stopped still in the centre of the room.
All seemed to be as expected, until a series of pleats-clad dancers appeared on top of a large structure in the background, making their way down the scaffolding with a few handstands thrown in, before climbing on each other’s shoulders to walk the runway – in three-man-tall structures. What followed was a dance performance which saw Issey’s models run, leap and fall across the space in varying degrees of intensity.
With Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, you know you’re going to get a solid and successful collection of the iconic pleats. But by situating them in this context, pushing beyond the parameters of a traditional runway show, the brand was able to show the garments as they were intended: in movement, fluid, and to be celebrated.
This season the brand focused on the colours of Spring – including vivid greens alongside marigold yellows and burnt oranges. There was a sense of harmony that formed between the pleats on ‘stage’ and the plentiful pleats in the audience – a phenomenon that can only occur with Issey’s immovable brand identity, and dedication to a singular texture that has become an iconic piece of fashion history.
As the show progressed, the brand fused the traditional runway show and movement-based performance further, by having models walk the edges of the wider ‘stage’, and interact with the dancers in the centre. The collection’s colour palette got darker and more neutral: grey pleated tanks partially obscured orange shirts below, and one of the closing looks consisted of a grey tailored coat that said Issey Miyake but for the office.
The brand also debuted a print that emulated forest trees set against a clear sky: playing with texture, form and colour for poncho-like pieces. The show also highlighted the benefits of layering for Issey Miyake – bringing boxy shapes to the forefront under slouchy tanks, or in elongating targeted areas of the body. It was Issey Miyake in all its glory – movement and all.
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