Issey Miyake: catching up with the man who pushes the envelope of fashion - Crossing, Boundaries - Interview

Interview, Nov, 2001 by Ingrid Sischy

IS: It must have also been an incredible culture clash, given what was happening at that moment in Paris and across the world.

IM: Yes. And I also knew how much was happening in America.

IS: So you finished your year at Givenchy and then you came to New York.

IM: Yes. Mr. Givenchy always knew that that was my goal. I came to New York in '69 and stayed just five or six months. The first time I'd come to the city was in '68, just to visit. It was during my time at Givenchy and a friend who lived in New York suggested I come over. I stayed on 34th Street, and he showed me the whole city. One day he asked me if there was anyone in particular I'd like to meet while I was there, and I said, "Yes, Hiro." The photographer was my hero. And knowing that he spoke Japanese made him feel familiar [to me]. This friend told me that Hiro was not in town, but that there was someone else I should meet. So he took me to see Richard Avedon. I stayed almost 30 minutes and thought, New York is so friendly and wild.

IS: Can you remember your feeling the first time you came into the city from Kennedy Airport?

IM: I felt like I was arriving at some very cosmopolitan city of the future. It was a great time for me to come to New York because it was the height of the hippie era. There was Woodstock and Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. You know, I had been living in Europe and was not into all that, was not into "Beatlemania." But that was a fascinating time. So as soon as my year in Paris was up I packed my bags and moved to your city. I took classes at Columbia and at Hunter College. Each morning I started work at 9:00 a.m. on Seventh Avenue, then I'd go to Columbia to learn English, and then every night, parties. I went everywhere--Central Park, the Village. There was so much happening in the city, underground things. It really made me think and changed the way I looked at things. And then I got sick and I had to go back to Tokyo--when I said goodbye to Japan I'd thought I'd never go back. But it also ended up being a great time when I did return to Japan. The World's Fair was going on. Young designers were doing thin gs for the World Expo. And I joined them after I got better. I needed to make money because I wanted to return to New York. And I did in 1970, but by then the economy in New York had changed completely. Times were really dark by then. So I went home to Tokyo again, where I found the light. There was the air of possibility there. I began to think, I should start something on my own. I had some friends who wanted to work with me, and I also sensed something new happening on the street.

IS: What's interesting about even your earliest clothes is how they show your intuition that technology was going to change fashion.

IM: Yes. It changed with fabrics like nylon and polyester. I was the first one to use ultra-suede--the essence of the suede. After that I thought, to make something really original I should work with people who are in the forefront of technology. I have always believed in simplicity because the human body is already something amazing-why complicate things?