Before the big Issey Miyake retrospective at Tokyo’s National Art Center opens on March 16, there’s something closer to home that’s bubbling at the Pleats Please Issey Miyake boutique (#01-28/29 Forum The Shopping Mall). From today, get Issey Miyake’s 22-piece capsule collection of apparel and accessories that bear the works of one of Japan’s foremost graphic artists, Ikko Tanaka.
The late Tanaka was Japan’s answer to The Bauhaus for his stark, bold and colourful works. He gained international recognition for his modernist illustration of a geisha on the poster of a Nihon Buyo dance performance at the UCLA Asian Performing Arts Institute in 1981. The brand, which started collaborating with Tanaka from 1978, has used that famous image as prints for some of the designs in the collection, along with other images like samurais and abstract Japanese prints. Imran Jalal rounds up the standout pieces.