✂-Designer's Tip of The Day- A Piece of Cloth

Issey Miyake Coat- Spring/Summer 1995

Clear-pink pleated polyester monofilament
appliqued with red, blue and green pieces.

Miyake was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1938. He established the Miyake Design Studio in 1970 and started to show his line at the Paris Collections in 1973. Miyake's basic tenets for making clothes has always been the idea of creating a garment from 'one piece of cloth', and the exploration of the space between the human body and the cloth that covers it.

In 1976 Miyake presented the flat "a piece of cloth" design, which is in many ways the basic concept behind Japanese clothes.

In 1998, Miyake embarked upon a new project called A-POC (A Piece of Cloth) with Dai Fujiwara and a team of young designers. He is challenging the way in which clothing is made using new process that harnesses computer technology to industrial knitting or weaving machines to create clothing beginning with a single piece of thread. 

Pictures above show a coat created by this innovative technique, with a form that looks like a stage costume for a traditional Japanese No dance.

The question is, what could YOU do with "a piece of cloth"?

In recent events The Designer's Lounge would like to say our thoughts are with the people of Japan, particularly those who lost loved ones in the earthquake and tsunamis...

Source: The collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute, Fashion A History from the 18th to the 20th Century, by Taschen Publishing.