Characteristics of Eco-friendly Design Expressed in Issey Miyake's Fashion

Abstract

Interest in the environment is rising in all the sectors of industry and culture. Even in the fashion industry, fashion designers have recently begun delivering messages on the environment. In particular, Issey Miyake has been constantly interested in environmental issues, and has been deemed as a designer who values practicality and universality in clothing. This study seeks to ex- amine Issey Miyake's fashion from the perspective of an eco-friendly design. This research ana- lyzed collections of Issey Miyake from 1980 to 2010 through photo works and www.firstview.com. The research method was to study 8 people who have professionalism in fashion design and have analyzed 201 works of Issey Miyake from 1980s to 2000s that have the characteristics of eco-friendly design. The results showed the following characteristics of eco-friendly design in Issey Miyake's fashion : naturality, simplicity, sustainability and transformability. First, Issey Miyake pre- ferred natural materials and used Japan traditional dyeing that integrated modern techniques for naturality. Second, he expressed simplicity in his fashion by applying the least cutting and sewing in geometric panels. Third, he pursued sustainability with comfortable clothing that anyone could wear regardless of trend, age and body shape. Finally, he developed the A-POC system that elim- inated the usual needs for cutting and sewing and tried transformability on clothing using but- tons, strings, belts, zippers, and layered styling