TEXTILES.ORG
Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake’s Spring-Summer 2018 collection takes its inspiration from Iceland’s natural beauty. The collection is fresh, clean and bold with unique textures and shapes in bright blues, greens, whites and yellows.
Miyake turned to We+, a Tokyo-based contemporary design studio, to create a window display for the collection at the Matsuya Ginza Department Store in Tokyo. We+ designed a look that accentuates the Icelandic connection with a backdrop of cool colors taken from a printed series of the country’s landscapes.
The window features 70 textile strips that hang vertically behind the clothing. The strips are steam stretched, a technique developed by Miyake that involves weaving creases into the cloth using heat-reactive thread. The cloth shrinks when steam is applied, causing the strips to expand and shrink.
The fabric strips are connected to motors to create movement. As the strips expand and contract, sometimes in unison and other times randomly, it creates the sense of aliveness, as though the strips are breathing like the creatures in Iceland’s forests. For more information, visit www.weplus.jp.
