At Paris Fashion Week, the unveiling of Issey Miyake’s Spring-Summer 2025 collection offered more than just a fashion presentation—it delivered an artistic meditation on materiality, tradition, and innovation. Aptly titled “The Beauty of Paper,” this collection, under the creative direction of Satoshi Kondo, transformed the ephemeral and humble medium of paper into an evocative exploration of design. In a glass-walled pavilion at Parc Floral, attendees were transported into a serene world where the boundaries between nature, craft, and modernity dissolved.
The stage was set with an air of grounding simplicity. Guests sat on stools crafted from compressed paper cylinders, subtly echoing the brand’s renowned pleating techniques. These stools, marbled to resemble tree trunk growth rings, symbolized the passage of time, a theme interwoven throughout the collection. This thoughtful design element served as a prelude to the visual and conceptual depth of the garments that followed.
Washi: The Heart of the Collection
Inspired by washi, traditional Japanese paper, Satoshi Kondo’s designs celebrated its lightness and fluidity, translating these qualities into garments that felt both transformative and dreamlike. The “Fold to Form” series, an ode to origami, used washi-blended fabrics to craft angular, three-dimensional silhouettes. These creations struck a delicate balance between structure and movement, their box-like forms softening as they adapted to the body, embodying a poetic tension between control and freedom.
Ethereal and Grounded: Signature Series – The collection’s diversity was showcased through its carefully curated series:
Ease and Eased Series: Paying homage to kamiko—ancient Japanese clothing made from washi paper—this series featured garments crafted from a blend of hemp, mohair, and wool. These designs draped effortlessly, their organic textures emphasizing a connection to nature. Subtle variations in fabric tones highlighted the artisanal craftsmanship and historical significance behind each piece.
Eau Series: Inspired by the fluidity of water, this series showcased transparent, shimmering fabrics that refracted light like sunlight on rippling water. These garments captured the dreamlike essence of nature’s movement, offering an ethereal softness both in texture and aesthetic.
Hempen Series: Exploring hemp as both a sustainable and historically significant material, this series reimagined its use in modern fashion. Dyed and coated for durability, these pieces balanced tradition with functionality, celebrating hemp’s natural comfort and strength.
Wear and Worn Series: Perhaps the most playful and innovative, this series invited interaction with garments designed for versatility. Seamless knitting technology allowed wearers to transform each piece, reversing or reconfiguring its shape to create entirely new silhouettes. This emphasis on adaptability reflected Issey Miyake’s ethos of merging craft with technology.
Nature’s delicate beauty was further reflected in the “Pressed Flora” series, which featured prints of spring flowers like peonies and ranunculus. These motifs, pressed into fabrics to mimic the imperfections of nature, evoked the fragility and transience of life. Similarly, the “Cloth and Cord” series embraced an elemental aesthetic, combining linen and stretch yarns gathered and secured with cotton ropes. The resulting designs balanced rustic simplicity with refined craftsmanship, offering lightness and fluidity in every fold.
The collection’s innovative use of paper extended to accessories, with the “Paper Bag” series creating bags from woven washi yarns. These pieces retained the texture and lightness of paper while demonstrating remarkable durability. The show concluded with the “Shade and Shaded” series, where sheer fabrics folded diagonally and partially pleated played with light and shadow. This interplay of transparency and structure encapsulated the duality of paper—both fragile and enduring.
Satoshi Kondo’s Spring-Summer 2025 collection for Issey Miyake transcended traditional notions of fashion, inviting viewers to reflect on the overlooked beauty of paper. Through a seamless blend of artistry, heritage, and innovation, the collection celebrated the material’s simplicity while pushing the boundaries of its potential. By transforming a humble medium into garments of profound depth and meaning, “The Beauty of Paper” serves as a reminder to find inspiration in the everyday and to honor the enduring impact of thoughtful design. This collection stands as a testament to the power of creativity in connecting tradition with the future of sustainable fashion.
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