ISSEY MIYAKE welcomes their new Flagship store in Tokyo for HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE / AOYAMA, championing the brand’s signature pleated garments with a permanent in-store display of the folding production’s machinery and equipment. The pleat-driven menswear line created by Japanese designer Issey Miyake is known for it’s seihin (product) pleats technology, created by using fabric cut and sewn to 1.5 times normal size.

Located in Tokyo’s Minami-Aoyama street (a quaint locale lined with boutique luxury stores) the new 225sqm flagship store is perfectly positioned alongside six of their other signature brand stores situated on the same strip. Inside the spacious interior behind a glass partitioning, find a rare insight into the pleats-production process (one that has only ever previously been publicly shown in 2016, during the Issey Miyake exhibition at the National Art Centre, Tokyo.)

For the store’s design, Issey Miyake enlisted long-term collaborator and Tokyo-based designer Tokujin Yoshioka to create the minimalist interior, now his 17th store design for the Japanese designer. Find one dominant key element in the interior design; powder-coated matte black steel that is used for the display tables, garment racks, register counter and accompanying stool seating.

Visually striking for the eye, it seems as though Yoshioka has considered geometrical precision in every corner and design for the store. Yoshioka had intended for shelving to appear as though they are weightless and transient. whilst the sleek, steeled racks were designed to appear almost as floating, by taking into consideration the weight of product when hung. To create a perfect line, Yoshioka slightly bent the steel to support the weight of garments, and when hung, they balance out to create an accurately-straight line. Only the shadow of each garment’s silhouette is seen. The visual simplicity and consistency of the singular dominant steel store material perfectly pairs well with the store’s exposed concrete structure, and the brand’s vibrantly-coloured garments and pleated product texture.

The store’s key concept focusses on mono-zukuri no gemba (the site of making things), and here lies the amalgamation of experimental technology and handcrafts. Where the process of a synthetic textile constructed as a wearable garment must be finished by hand, merging methods of production by machinery and the human hand. The inclusion signals the ongoing importance of handmade physical craftsmanship, not yet lost to computer-programmed mechanisms or artificial intelligence.

To celebrate the new store’s opening, find a series of Limited Edition long sleeve garments under the brand’s COLORS title (available in 10 shades), made directly by the pleating machine located in the shop and featuring a new AOYAMA logo addition, created by revered Japanese art director Katsumi Asaba.

HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE / AOYAMA
3-18-14 Minami-Aoyama
Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan