Tokyo — Building one of Japan's biggest fashion brands, Issey Miyake, known for his sculpted pleated pieces and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' black turtleneck, has died. He was 84 years old.
Miyake died of liver cancer on August 5, his design office announced Tuesday.
Miyake is part of a generation of designers who defined an era in Japan's modern history and gained worldwide fame in the 1970s by defining a uniquely different vision of Japan from the West. and reached stardom among artists.
Miyake's origami-like pleats turned the normally humble polyester into chic. He used computer technology to create his apparel.His modest attire was meant to celebrate the human body, regardless of race, build, size, or age. Averse to even being called a designer, flirtatious, trend-watching, choosing not to identify with what she considers conspicuous consumption.
Again and again, Miyake returned to his basic concept of starting with a piece of cloth.
Over the years, he has worked with a variety of cultural and social motifs and everyday items (plastic, rattan, "Japanese paper", jute, horsehair, foil, thread, batik, indigo dyeing, etc.).
He sometimes wears Jimi Hendrix or Janice Evoking the image of Joplin or working with Japanese painter Tadanori Yokoo for monkeys and foliage in vivid, psychedelic hues.
He also worked with furniture and interior designer Shiro Kuramata, a photographer. He has also collaborated with Irving Penn of the House, choreographer and director Maurice Béjart, potter Lucy Lee, and Ballet Frankfurt.
In 1992, Miyake became the Olympic official of Lithuania, which had just gained independence from the Soviet Union.
Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake became a star on the runways of Europe, working with the Japanese sewing fabric sashiko and raw silk. His brown top combined with knits graced the cover of Elle magazine's September 1973 issue. Asked him to model in the 1970s, sending the message that clothing should be a comfortable and natural expression of the beauty of a real person.
He was commonplace Though he made clothes that transcended the sensible and seemed to reach for the spiritual, he always endorsed the T-shirt and jeans look, never emphasizing pretentiousness.
“Design is like a living creature in that it pursues what is important to its well-being and continuity,” Miyake once wrote in his book.
His office confirmed that a private funeral had already taken place and that no other ceremony would take place per Miyake's wishes.
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