Miyake Modern - Japanese designer Issey Miyake - Interview

Art in America, Feb, 1999 by Joan Simon

JS: He made an inflated body--

IM: --air is blowing from a tube to the quilt. It's a great idea. It was first shown at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles.

JS: Cai Guo-Qiang's is another unique collaboration that grew out of working out a printed design. This one was planned specifically with the Cartier show in mind. It's actually a three-part piece: a performance action, which resulted in a sculpture seen in the show, and some unique garments mounted with similar-looking printed ones.

IM: The idea came from him. When we talked, he had enough ideas for 20 years! But I had to choose one. He exploded the clothes, and I feel so free now--I can really think. [Laughter.]

JS: Your room of "Jumping" clothes here at Cartier brings to mind theatrical works of many sorts, and especially costume designs by the Russian Constructivists and Italian Futurists. The pieces here incorporate dance into the body of the textile, into the architecture of each piece.

IM: From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved. The clothes are also for people to dance or laugh. I very much like dance and dancers. I have worked with several dance companies. I wanted to work for William Forsythe. I thought the pleats would be good for dance, and one day I went to Frankfurt to see Forsythe dance. I asked if I could work with them and he agreed. I started off to make tights, but for me, it's old. So I used the pleats.

JS: That was for The Loss of Small Detail, 1991. Did you work with the movement of the dancers too?

IM: No. I sent 200, 300 of the clothes that I had made, and the dancers chose what they liked.

JS: Each day they could choose what to wear?

IM: Each performance was different.

Design and Technology

JS: I'd like to know about the match between technology and imagination. For your fabrics, do you find the machine first and then develop the idea? Or do you have the idea, and find the machine to make it?

IM: To be honest, I think we should find first the possibility to make it. Research is first--if you're not interested, you never can find something. Many things happen from forgotten machines--ones that are no longer used.

JS: In making your clothes do you start with the textile or the form?

IM: I should say both. I started to work with cotton fabrics. I used cotton because it's easy to work with, to wash, to take care of, to wear if it's warm or cold. It's great. That was the start. I work also with many, many synthetic fabrics. Polyester. Nylon. They're washable, they make great forms using new technology--also always keeping the idea that they are comfortable, wearable.

JS: You focused on the quilted cotton used in traditional, rural, everyday Japanese work clothes.

IM: That's sashiko, a quilted cotton, very soft. And I also used calico. Very cheap. I wanted to do clothes for people to wear. Even 30 years ago, it wasn't cheap, cheap, cheap--but I tried to make reasonably priced clothes. It's difficult, but that's very important--that's what I learned in New York, looking at people in the Village, in SoHo, in Central Park.