Early this month in Paris, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake debuted its fall/winter 2024-25 collection entitled “Immersed in the Wilds of Creativity.” Presented at the Palais de Tokyo, the collection stemmed from a collaboration with Ronan Bouroullec. The artist and designer’s drawings were the starting point for the creative exchange—a second between Bouroullec and Issey Miyake.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2024-25, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
Bouroullec’s embrace of color, volume, texture, and movement was reflected in the clothing, both on the runway and lining the walls of the museum. Whitewall caught up with the artist after the show, along with a member of the Issey Miyake studio. They shared how the collection went beyond the use of Bouroullec’s art in a pattern or print. Instead, it fully embraced a conversation of concepts, an interpretation of ideas, and a translation from one material to the next.
The designer and studio shared with Whitewall what it was like to become truly immersed in the wilds of creativity.
Ronan Bouroullec Collaborates with Issey Miyake for a Second Time
WHITEWALL: Ronan, this is not your first time working with Issey Miyake, as you designed the interior of a Paris A-POC store with your brother in 2000. How does it feel to return to Issey Miyake for this collaboration?
RONAN BOUROULLEC: The relationship with Issey Miyake started 20 years ago. It was a very important thing in my life, in my career. When Issey called me to do that project I said, “No,” because it was for interiors and I’m not an interior designer. I said, “I’m not a good person for this,” and he said, “Yes, yes, you have to do it.” And he was right. It was a good success. It was a very important relationship. He ended up organizing our first exhibition in Japan.
Then, one and a half years ago, the team called me and asked if they could work with my drawings for this collection, and I said “No,” again. I always say “no” to fashion requests to use my drawing. I don’t want them to be used by fashion. But then one hour after, after a quick reflection, I thought, Issey Miyake is a respectful team, and probably it would be a nice way to work with them. It was the beginning of a long relationship playing with the drawings and with the team.
Ronan Bouroullec, photo by Marion-Berrin.
WW: What was the creative process like working with Issey Miyake’s design team?
ISSEY MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO: As a team, we are really drawn to Ronan’s drawings from the beginning. We found a natural synergy between his work and our clothing designs. As a brand, we celebrated our 10th anniversary last year and we are always looking for something new for the collection. We had this idea of working with Ronan, not just using his drawings as motifs and patterns, but really diving into the material and using it as creative material—to really work with it and to have an in-depth relationship with the drawings.
Ronan Bouroullec in the Issey Miyake studio, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
Ronan Bouroullec Encouraged Issey Miyake to Dive Into His Drawings
WW: What was the creative process like working with the material this time?
RC: It was fantastic because they are all so skillful. They are so good. In the beginning, they were respectful of my drawings, so delicately playing with them. I said, “No, you have to use the drawings like a box of colors. You have to go inside it. You have to cut it. You have to dive in it.” It was very strong the way they used it.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2024-25, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
WW: The team managed to work around the drawings and incorporate the drawings into something that becomes an artwork that is worn and lived in. What was that like?
IMS: I think we were really inspired by our exchanges. I think, thanks to Ronan’s understanding of our creative process, the more we looked at his drawings the more we imagined how beautiful, lively, and dynamic they would be if they came alive. All the decisions that we’ve made are always based on if this is going to make the drawing more organic as if it’s a living creature.
This is also why we named the collection, “Immersed in the Wilds of Creativity.” You are actually inside this world of creativity. We see Ronan’s drawings as an inspiration source that’s really captivating. In terms of the technologies we used, we have embroidery, we have knit, and we used many techniques to try to translate and capture that essence and expand on it.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2024-25, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake is Immersed in the Wilds of Creativity
WW: Issey Miyake is renowned for its versatile, practical, and gorgeous garments made of tech-driven designs. How do you relate to that as a designer and artist?
RC: Issey Miyake is more than a fashion designer. It’s someone, a team, and then a group of people that are skilled in so many ways. They are architects, they are designers, they are fashion. Their understanding of the architecture of clothing, the way they search, the way they investigate, is exactly the type of research I’m doing when I’m doing furniture, architecture, or when I work for a museum. I felt I was in exactly the same kind of team I normally have around me.
Here it’s about the construction, what you discover, how you work with craftsmen in couture, and how you work with new machines that will print in three dimensions or cut the leather in a certain way. It’s a mix of great people who are full of energy in a lot of different ways and it was a pleasure. I think this collection is a collection about pleasure, in a certain way. Everything is linked but there is pleasure there is this joy inside this collection.
Ronan Bouroullec in the Issey Miyake studio, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
WW: If you could choose one favorite piece from the collection, which would it be?
RC: It’s interesting because I’m opening a new exhibition in Centre Georges Pompidou in a month, and I have to choose one piece of clothing to put on the wall. For a week I’ve been thinking and thinking about it and there are a lot of pieces, in the end, I would be very happy to have—from the back to the big piece, from the small to the medium, I think all of them are quite interesting.
IMS: I think the whole collection represents that the brand is moving forward. Every piece is strong in itself, I would say. Together they capture the essence of creative sessions of working with an artist and designer like Ronan.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2024-25, courtesy of Issey Miyake.
