The Lightness of Issey Miyake

PARIS, France — The Issey Miyake show was held in a breeze-swept upper alley of the University Pierre et Marie Curie, a rather nondescript building with few compelling angles. It was entitled Light and was all about lightness as a material quality of the clothes as well as the way one should wear them, regardless of occasion or time of day.

In this sense, designer Yusuke Takahashi hit a mark: the location, the staging and the collection fit together nicely. But what ultimately materialised on the catwalk was a line-up of overly normal-looking pieces. It was clothing that will certainly find a place in the closets of many men but looked boring on the runway. As a house with a radical — if gentle and user-friendly — DNA, Issey Miyake needs a stronger point of view.