ISSEY MIYAKE

(b.1938)  Issey Miyake left Toyko in 1964, headed to Paris and a career in fashion.  He worked for Guy Laroche and then for Givenchy in the late 1960s.  In 1969 he went to New York where he worked with Geoffrey Beene.

In 1970 Miyake returned to Toyko and formed Miyake Design Studio.  He showed his first collection the following year.  Two years later he showed his collection in Paris for the first time.  From the beginning Miyake has been concerned with freedom of movement and the shape of the human form as opposed to the shape of the clothes.  Miyake's designs often involve layering and wrapping, and they combine elements from both Eastern and Western clothing.

Miyake started a men's line in 1976.  In the 1980s Miyake began working with pleating techniques, and he started his "Pleats Please" label in 1993.  In 1999 Naoki Takizawa became the designer of Miyake's women's wear lines.  As of 2007, the designer is Dai Fujiwara.