Irving Penn on Issey Miyake

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The Tokyo exhibit will include large-scale projections of Penn’s collection photographs, an animated film by Pascal Roulin with original drawings by Michael Crawford, Issey Miyake co

Above all, he had unusual respect for materials derived from fossil fuels, seeing plastic, nylon and all the polys not as cheap disposable substitutes for natural substances, but as themselves having unique properties – polyfibres he developed with adventurous manufacturers were machine-washable, uncrushable, stretchy and kind to skin. Hi-tech production processes reduced yarn as well as fabric waste; his garments were visually timeless and made to last physically. Miyake never thought of hydrocarbons as infinite resources to burn. Their complex chemistry and potential uses were precious – the heat of long-gone suns made clothes and ingredients for his water-themed perfumes, starting with L’Eau d’Issey in 1992. In the 21st century, his Tokyo Reality Lab recycled plastic bottle tops into durable, wearable cloth.

Penn, Irving. Irving Penn Photographs of Dahomey (1967) (exhibition catalogue). Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2004.

The basic look was familiar, but just about everything he used was novel: a lightweight polyester fabric cut with a new technique involving hot metal, new oversize zippers, and a new method of pleating the fabric. “I worked hard,” Miyake said. “I was studying the whole time, and we learned so much.” — P.M.

Buisine, Alain. "Irving Penn or the Object Sublimated." La Recherche Photographique 15 (Autumn 1993): 30–33. Studio to Stage: Music Photography from the Fifties to the Present, Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, New York, June 29–August 19, 2022. A-PoC Le Feu, by Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara, 1999, an example of Miyake’s A-PoC (A Piece of Cloth) concept – extruded tubular fabric that wearers could cut out into seamless garments. Photograph: Yasuaki Yoshinaga/A-PoC Le Feu, Issey Miyake Tuite, Rebecca C. 1950s in Vogue: the Jessica Daves Years, 1952-1962. London: Thames and Hudson, 2019.