The tip of a hair on a paintbrush is called its toe. When a brush dipped in viscous enough paint is passed down a surface, the toes leave minuscule grooves in the application. Today the Issey Miyake team worked with artist Ronan Bouroullec on a collection that gently enlightened your perception of clothes as a canvas for human expression and their potential to furnish comfort.
Said the artist in a quote provided by the house: “It was an extraordinary experience to work with the design team, where I discovered many things over the course of the creative session about what my work has in common and in contrast with their clothing design. And it is the synergy as well as the distance between us that have made this project both inspiring and rewarding.”
Bouroullec’s brushstroke drawings were hung down the wall of the Palais de Tokyo space we were facing, imprinted upon canvases of clothes. The models then walked past us wearing them. You could soon see the relationship between the artist’s curved, color-filled brushstrokes and the pleats they decorated. The clothes became more complex, swaddling the wearers, integrating them. Some carried what resembled (and indeed were) pillows, but which were stuffed with compacted pleated coats.
These were clothes you could rest upon or within. When the models’ pleated pants came down to the ankle, they were delicately vented at the back for movement: through these vents you could see their socks were woven from a multicolor myriad of yarn. A collection of complex simplicity.
