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| Dancers wear the malleable and supple creations of Yoshiyuki Miyamae, showing great freedom of movement. The colours and shapes inspired by the volcanic landscapes of Iceland. Cover picture and all photographs for DAM by Elli Ioannou |
Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake used dancers to open an evocative show in Paris, inspired by Iceland's austere, volcanic landscapes. The Spring/Summer 2018 collection's fluid, three dimensional textiles evoke a frozen, igneous world that is harsh yet full of life, writes Antonio Visconti. Photographs by Elli Ioannou
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Backstage in Paris with Issey Miyake
artistic director Yoshiyuki Miyamae. |
ISSEY Miyake's artistic director Yoshiyuki Miyamae's new show in Paris was launched with three acrobatic dancers performing great leaps and runs under flashing lights to atonal music. Located in the Grand Palais' Salon d'Honneur, a spotlight showed the three figures immersed in fabric creating shapes with the asymmetrical knitwear. The designer wanted to display how the clothes gave great freedom of movement and elasticity to the wearer. The overall vision and story of the Spring/Summer 2018 collection was inspired by Yoshiyuki Miyamae's travels in Iceland.
The textiles are printed with natural landscapes displaying volcanic rock and glaciers. The designer wanted to capture the mystery and vastness of Iceland's countryside and mountains.
Miyamae's collection includes flowing, slim dresses and long asymmetric tops that do suggest ice floes and ice cubes. The
fluid, three-dimensional garments with their abstract, blurred patterns show in a visual way the haziness of memory. The designer said that despite the tough and primitive Icelandic terrain, it was a place full of life and this inspired his work. He wanted to try and create his experience in the clothes. "The theme of this collection came from my memory of the landscape in Iceland, where I got many new inspirations and I saw the beautiful landscape," Miyamae said. "That's how we started with a simple pattern, like a square of land."
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| Elemental forms enhanced the vivid prints and colours |
The first looks that emerged on the runway were knitwear, with the Issey Miyake signature pleats and folds that give the pieces their unique silhouette. Long tops with high slits, ponchos with graphic prints, flowing shift dresses, and diaphanous silk chiffon skirts gave the collection a breezy, summery atmosphere heightened by the colours and textures drawn from Iceland. The variety of the designs was reflected in the hetergenous casting, with models of different shapes, sizes, colour and ages all walking the show together, still a rare occurrence in Paris.
Yoshiyuki Miyamae is able to recreate and breathe new life into Issey Miyake tropes and traditions every season.
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A futuristic vibe was enhanced with
three-dimensional fabrics
and angular sandals |
Although this collection explored knitted fabrics in an abstract and original way, the designer also experimented with dramatic and eye-catching prints. The palette ranged from rich turquoise to yellowy golds, ochres and sienna. Despite the textiles' complexity in form and pattern, the clothes all had elemental shapes. The dresses and tops had a strong sense of the squares, rectangles or ovals they were made from.
Yet the
pleats and the strong colour and prints gave a rippling, three dimensional effect.
The check patterns were created with a Japanese dyeing technique called "dorozome" where a textile cube is created by putting together square pieces of fabric. This was highlighted by fringing which gave a sense of Iceland's grasslands. The futuristic, fluid look of the collection was emphasised by the angle-heeled sandals and sleek Velcro trainers. The Issey Miyake loose silhouette gave a broad scope to show the Icelandic landscape on big swathes of the specially-created textiles. The blurred Icelandic motifs ~ suggesting distant memories ~ were created by baking printed glue on to the fabric, which is part of the Japanese fashion house’s continuation of experimenting with new techniques.
Issey Miyake's three-dimensional fabrics, using various stretching methods, brought waves and textures to dresses and tops, enhancing again the sense of the mistiness of memory. The dark hue of some prints was created using a brown taken from a natural mud pigment that conveyed the geometric designs meant to evince volcanic Icelandic rocks and moss-covered landscapes with crystalline glaciers.
Tap on photographs for full-screen slide-show
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| Backstage pre-show at Issey Miyake with make-up artist Alex Box adding the final touches |
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| Hair and make-up before the runway show at the Grand Palais in Paris |
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| Backstage all of the new Issey Miyake SS18 looks are printed out and numbered |
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| Pre-show wearing the new SS18 Issey Miyake collection inspired by the Icelandic landscape before walking the runway |
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| Issey Miyake Creative Director Yoshiyuki Miyamae backstage in Paris being interviewed |
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| The Icelandic landscapes captured in the new Spring/Summer 2018 collection |
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| The fluid and elastic nature of the new Issey Miyake fabrics shown by dancers opening the runway show |
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| The dynamic dancers were a dramatic launch for the new collection |
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| Natural brown pigments and flowing shapes conveyed the sense of landscape |
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| The show was made up of a diverse mix of models wearing elemental, fluid shapes |
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| White as snow, this draped tunic with Velcro sneakers made a light contrast to the colourful collection inspired by Iceland's landscape |
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| Issey Miyake's prints of the sky, lakes and mountains of Iceland were superlative pieces in the collection |
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| Backstage the models prepare to walk out on to the runway captured by a photographer |
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| The long swathes of material and simple shapes allowed the designer to show moss-covered rocks and grassy hinterlands of Iceland |
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| Caught in Motion, the dancers leap and bound before the show, displaying the elasticity and freedom of the collection's fabrics |
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| A spotlight at the Grande Palais highlighted the opening choreography of the show, with it's long, knitted forms |
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| Dark navy blues and rich azure of Iceland's blue skies make a strong constrast to the greens of the landscape colours |
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| The fludity and fine pleating that are the signature of all Issey Miyake collections |
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| The check patterns were created with a Japanese dyeing technique called "dorozome" where a textile cube is created by putting together square pieces of fabric |
