The Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1938. He studied graphic design at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, graduating in 1964. After graduation, he collaborated with Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy in Paris. In 1969 he moved to New York City working in the textil company of Geoffrey Beene.
Returning to Tokyo in 1970, he opened the Miyake Design Studio. In 1971 he founded the company Issey Miyake International Inc., which is today the biggest fashion company in Japan.
In 1971 he presented his first collection in New York, two years later in Paris.
Issey Miyake is known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.
In his collections he aligned effectually western with eastern influences as for instance in his collection "Seperates" (1984).
In the late 1980s, he began to experiment with new methods of pleating that would allow both flexibility of movement for the wearer as well as ease of care and production. This lastly resulted in a new technique called garment pleating.
Like many fashion designers, Miyake also has a line of perfumes for men and women. His first fragrance, the L'eau d'Issey for women, was launched in 1992.
Every year since 2007, he has brought out a "limited time only" fragrance for ladies in which he brings in a "guest" perfumer.
In 1994 and 1999, Miyake turned over the design of the men's and women's collections respectively, to his associate, Naoki Takizawa, so that he could return to research full-time. In 2007, Naoki Takizawa opened his own brand, supported by the Issey Miyake Group and was substituted, as a Creative Director of the House of Issey Miyake, by Dai Fujiwara.
Miyake oversees the overall direction of all lines designed by his company, even though the individual collections have been created by his staff since his "retirement" from the fashion world in 1997.
In 2005, Issey Miyake was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture and in 2006 he won the Arts and Philosophy Kyoto Prize.
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