Issey Miyake–style micro-pleats have been experiencing a runway renaissance of late. One place you won’t find a straightforward take on the house signature, though, is at Issey Miyake itself: At the brand’s show, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae continued to test the horizons of what a pleat can be and do, introducing a new “baked stretch” technique that molds pleats into the body of a fabric. The most compelling looks in the collection were the ones that featured wavy baked stretch pleats, with contrasting colors printed into the curves; as the sculptural garments moved, they had a spring action, a little like that of a Slinky. The motion was surprising but subtle—you could easily imagine wearing these pieces.
The looks with the most instantaneous appeal, however, were the bright, color-blocked ones punctuated with touches of fringe. Miyamae and his team had a tropical theme going here, witnessed in the collection’s palette, but the raffia textures of the fringed pieces nicely underlined the hothouse atmosphere. There were also net tops with a similarly earthy charm—an unusual tone for Miyake, a house that hews to a synthetic aesthetic as a rule, but a welcome addition to the brand vocabulary. Pleats remain the star at Issey Miyake, but there are new supporting players.
