Issey Miyake’s “Enclothe” is designed for maximum customization and endless possibilities
Japanese fashion brand Issey Miyake’s latest design called “Enclothe” is for people who like to experiment with garments. On Instagram this weekend, the brand featured a single piece of fabric configured with abstract holes, a strap, a slit, and a rounded fastener, pinned to the wall like art. And it sort of is.
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Issey Miyake asks the question, “How do you imagine?” alluding to the myriad ways one can wear the piece. In the video, the models played with the garment and in the process created their own designs out of the pattern. Slipping their heads in one hole and sliding their arms into another, wrapping themselves with one edge and securing it with another, the Issey Miyake piece transforms into anything you can imagine.
In the end, the brand invites its fans to ponder upon another question: “How would you make it yours?”
“Enclothe” was first seen at the designer’s Fall-Winter 2024 collection earlier this year. Made from linen, silk, washi, wool, and triacetate, a semi-synthetic material, the pieces are developed to highlight the materials’ draping prowess, allowing for voluminous silhouettes that are easily reconfigurable.
There are pants but most pieces are modular and can be put together in several iterations depending on the wearer.
The late founder of the brand and visionary Issey Miyake has been known to experiment with the possibilities of materials. His brand is most known for its unique pleats that hold its shape and allow for maximum movement and comfort without losing its integrity. Miyake pioneered this design in the 1980s. His other notable designs include Apple’s Steve Job’s uniform, a black turtleneck.
Miyake’s philosophy has always been centered on humanistic design. His artistic process explores the fundamental relationship between the body and the cloth that covers it. In the book “Sultans of Style: Thirty Years of Fashion and Passion, 1960-90,” journalist Georgina Howell describes Miyake’s philosophy this way: The garment isn’t complete until the wearer makes it their own.
As early as the ’70s when he established the Miyake Design Studio, his pieces have always been about modularity, clothes that can be mixed and matched to suit different occasions.
Issey Miyake passed away in 2022. Satoshi Kondo is currently the brand’s creative director. Fashion journalist Luke Leitch reviewing Kondo’s latest collection entitled “What Has Always Been,” said the “collection contemplated clothing beyond history or style, but instead as deeply and intuitively engrained human habit.”
