Issey Miyake autumn/winter 2016 collection catwalk show | PFW

Psychedelic, futuristic and experimental, Issey Miyake’s autumn/winter 2016 show was full of fascinating shapes and textures.

Designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae continued his work with SS16’s Baked Stretch, where he printed glue onto fabric and stretched it to create unique moulded pleats, and the collection featured pieces with elaborate, intricate, almost headache-inducing waves and lines formed in the cloth.

This free-flowing material looked like light refracted through a prism, a dancing spectrum of colour. Some of these pleats were arranged in geometric grids or concentric circles and the effect was entrancing and hypnotic. It was also ever so slightly nauseating, as the moving interwoven lines and waves playing with perspective and added a trompe l’oeil effect.

However, the ever-innovative house have continued pioneering into pleats with their latest effect: 3D Steam Stretch. Instead of stretching the fabric, this process uses heat to shrink it, thereby creating abundantly structured ruffles and flounces. This was used alongside bright chenille wool for subtly intricate winter warm, but also with heating the fabric at different angles to create swirling, rippling pleats at varying angles.

This created mesmerising shapes and, although the colours were less bold, these accordion-like 3D structures were even more eye-catching. The standout looks showcased stripes heated to form snail shell spirals, which slowly unfurled across the piece and were mirrored by more flowing lines and patterns.

Issey Miyake are, once again, com-plete-ly ahead of the curve.

Catherine Phipps
Photos: Ambra Vernuccio