Issey Miyake Spring 2014: Innovative Textiles Take Center Stage

If you’re going to be showing black and white for Spring 2014, you need to do it in a really inventive way at this stage of fashion month. Luckily, Issey Miyake triumphed over the threat of been there, seen that with a really unique and artful take on the trend.

Stiff leather looked like super chic crisp white cotton when folded into crisp lines or punched with lines of small holes. The pieces were very structural and origami like. Beautiful sheer white blouses featured strategically places opaque white stripes. The paper bag waists on this runway were done in a very modern silhouette, nothing retro about it.

Next came more traditional white blouses with black pants, a relaxed but chic work look and very wearable.

Then things got a little more avant garde. Bright red and blue pieces were billowy and a bit oversized. There was a very relaxed, resort feel to the colorful looks. These gave way to even more oversized tops and jackets, more like ponchos, paired with equally voluminous, long skirts. These looks, while chic, would be hard to pull off without looking like you were drowning in fabric.

The graphic design elements were highlighted as always. Some pants featured a three-dimensional grid affect, and the holes mentioned above used a stream stretch technique that gave the appearance of a glow meant to evoke the image of stars in the sky.

Spring 2014 seems to be a season of textile manipulation and designs doing new things with fabrics, and designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae is at the head of that pack.