Issey Miyake's Humanist Conviction

PARIS, France — Fashion is having a Miyake moment right now, in the sense that the basic principles that led Issey's design path over the years — a visionary merging of design and function, and a deeply humanist conviction that even when creating clothing human beings and their needs come first, not the other way round — are more relevant now than they ever were before. The stress on functionality, protection, and simplicity are Miyake's forte, and that's exactly what designer Yusuke Takahashi, who's taken the leading role for menswear, did in the strong and focused collection that was presented today. He even dug out a couple of futuristic east-meets-cyber dusters from the archives.

But there was nothing nostalgic about it. It felt, instead, like the reiteration of a timeless recipe. Takahashi did best when he focused on flowing lines and intensely tactile textures. In this sense the collection had a remarkable lightness, while the prints should have been edited out. One way or the other, Takahashi succeeds in updating and evolving the Miyake ethos and heritage, something which should be carried over to the womenswear, too.