The Parisian addiction to Japanese Haute Couture

The Japanese fashion and fragrance designer, Issey Miyake, never ceases to disappoint the delicate French taste. At the recent 2009/10 Fall Fashion Week in Paris, Miyake lived up to his global reputation, with his innovative and technology driven designs. The fashion house produced multi-layered dresses and jackets along with slashed two-piece business suits. Puffy vests were complimented with pleats and symmetrical folds, to reflect Japanese art.

Issey Miyake refers to his designs not as clothing, or ready-to-wear ensembles, but rather as art pieces. The fashion house seeks to find a central point between design, fashion, art and economics. Miyake’s background in graphic design and his education at Tokyo’s famous Art University both influence his work greatly.

The well-known artist and designer was born in Hiroshima in 1938 and many of his works are therefore influenced by the dropping of the atomic bomb, when he was just seven years of age. He uses browns, reds, blacks and very earthy colours to portray purity and simplicity. His fragrances are similarly fresh, clean and classic. His first fragrance, L’eau d’Issey for women, launched in 1992 is still a world favourite. The most precious element of the earth, water, is the central theme of the fragrance mixed with florals to produce a light and acquatic scent. Perfect for daywear, the fragrance, which literally means Issey’s Water, mixes pure floral notes with musky and woody tones. The earthy, fresh and very feminine fragrance will remain a classic in the fragrance house of Miyake.