Issey Miyake Spring/Summer 2026 in Paris: A Study in Form, Freedom, and the Future of Dress

A fluid, deconstructed silhouette wraps the body in a single sheet of synthetic leather creating a sculptural form, in contrast to a tailored garment, at the Issey Miyake show in Paris. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Jay Zoo for DAM. 

At Paris' Centre Pompidou, Issey Miyake’s artistic director Satoshi Kondo explored how clothing interacts with the body, movement, and space for the new Spring/Summer 2026 collection. Under the Japanese designer's guidance, familiar garments, from jackets and shirts to everyday casual pieces, were reimagined with unconventional shapes, asymmetrical constructions, and innovative use of volume, creating a dialogue between wearer and garment. Story Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photographs by Jay Zoo 

Distorted, high shoulders plus sleeves

sewn on to pants, gave the collection 

a Dadaist vibe. 

SATOSHI Kondo called his latest Issey Miyake collection, Being Garments, Being Sentient, examining the idea of clothes having consciousness as a design provocation. 

Familiar pieces such as polos, hoodies, and shirts were reconfigured into sculptural shapes that challenged their own function. 

Shoulders lifted into sharp ridges high up on the neck, jacket arms were attached to trousers, seams drifted off axis, and collars stood upright, as though adjusting to new rhythms of wear. The garments were like engineered forms responding to movement and gravity in unexpected ways, as if they had a life of their own.

The question, “What if garments were aware?” became a surreal lens through which he and his team in Tokyo looked at flexibility, volume, and textiles in motion. In the form of a haiku, the designer wrote:

"If garments become autonomous. 

If the body becomes an object

At a liminal state where fabrication 

and the living Stand opposed yet entangle

A vivid relationship of otherness takes form"

Through a series of focused design experiments, including modular sleeves, exposed linings, and pieces that highlighted negative space, as well as collaborations that introduced new materials and textures, the collection investigated flexibility, structure, and functional creativity. 

From commentary on consumer culture to pleated textiles inspired by resilient natural forms, the show offered a comprehensive study of modern dress where design intelligence and human interaction are inseparable. In another series, sleeves were shifted, split, or repositioned to create dissonant silhouettes. A jacket might trail from one arm or wrap asymmetrically around the torso, transforming the routine act of dressing into a moment of decision and play. These gestures made visible the dialogue between garment and wearer, one directing, the other adapting. 

Through a series of focused design experiments, including modular sleeves, exposed lining and negative space, the collection investigated flexibility, structure and functional creativity

As a commentary on consumer

culture, the designs have pockets

filled with plastic detritus. 

Kondo also looked at consumer culture it into commentary. Elastic jersey pieces embedded with pockets and abstract objects exaggerated the human outline, hinting at the weight of excess. Some appeared stuffed with plastic bottles and even toilet paper.  

In another section, garments were inverted, making linings outwardly visible. While another group of designs focused on negative space, defined as much by the air they enclosed as by the body beneath.

For the finale, photographs of palms and resilient plants were pleated into textiles. Their structured yet fluid shapes reflected how nature endures in built environments, a fitting metaphor for Issey Miyake’s ongoing balance between technology and humanity

A collaboration with Camper, extended this conversation into material innovation. Using synthetic leather molded into fluid, continuous sheets, the pieces echoed the flexibility of footwear design. 

Throughout the show, held during Paris Fashion Week, Tarek Atoui’s live soundscape underscored the movement of the collection, filling the space with rhythmic pulses that mirrored the garments’ shifting geometries. The performance reinforced Kondo’s central point: that clothing need not be static and can be expressive.

In Being Garments, Being Sentient, Satoshi Kondo examined how a fold, a seam, or a silhouette can evoke curiosity and a surreal way of thinking about dress. It was a statement about the future of fashion and the art of making design feel alive.

Scroll down or tap pictures to see more highlights from Issey Miyake's SS26 collection in Paris