One of my assistants found this old German machine. It was originally used to make underwear. Like Chanel, who started with underwear fabric – jerseys – we used the machine that made underwear to make something else. – Issey Miyake
Designers must be increasingly sensitive to our Earth’s dwindling resources. It is our responsibility. – Issey Miyake
From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved. The clothes are also for people to dance or laugh. – Issey Miyake
I did not want to be labelled ‘the designer who survived the atomic bomb,’ and therefore I have always avoided questions about Hiroshima. – Issey Miyake
The important thing is to make something. In reality, it’s not important that a designer be known by name – you can remain anonymous. Even the status of a designer will undergo changes, I believe. – Issey Miyake
In the past, art was admired and revered from afar. Today, there is more of an interactive relationship between the art and the person who admires it. – Issey Miyake
To be honest, I think we should find first the possibility to make it. Research is first – if you’re not interested, you never can find something. Many things happen from forgotten machines – ones that are no longer used. – Issey Miyake
I am neither a writer nor a theorist. For a person who creates things to utter too many words means to regulate himself – a frightening prospect. – Issey Miyake
My touchstone started out being – and is still – exploring the ways by which to make clothing from a single piece of cloth. – Issey Miyake
Even when I work with computers, with high technology, I always try to put in the touch of the hand. – Issey Miyake
You see it in the many bouncing clothes that are not just pleats. To make them, two or three people twist them – twist, twist, twist the pleats, sometimes three or four persons twist together and put it all in the machine to cook it. – Issey Miyake
Of course there are many ways we can reuse something. We can dye it. We can cut it. We can change the buttons. Those are other ways to make it alive. But this is a new step to use anything – hats, socks, shirts. It’s the first step in the process. – Issey Miyake
In the Eighties, Japanese fashion designers brought a new type of creativity; they brought something Europe didn’t have. There was a bit of a shock effect, but it probably helped the Europeans wake up to a new value. – Issey Miyake
Indian paper is famous, Egyptian papyrus, Chinese paper… every country has used this natural material. But the problem is it’s going to run out because it’s very difficult work. – Issey Miyake
I sent 200, 300 of the clothes that I had made, and the dancers chose what they liked. – Issey Miyake
Paul Poiret did wonderful things because he was so influenced by motifs, but Vionnet really understood the kimono and took the geometric idea to construct her clothes – and that brought such freedom into European clothes in the 1920s. – Issey Miyake
Design is a vital component to the enrichment of our everyday lives. Japan has a very rich history and culture of design, and I feel it is a very important dialogue to open and keep evolving. – Issey Miyake