Lightness and ease-of-wear, summer. Breezy afternoons on sun-drenched decks somewhere divine: Issey Miyake’s man is the lucky recipient of a wardrobe of dead easy pieces for SS19. This morning’s show was a treatise on the shirt and a starting point for the perfectly pitched shopping. One section was full of shirts dyed in Kyoto using old techniques by “dye artisans”. Other techniques were new and created using the latest dye-bath science. It’s a perfect allegory for the world of Miyake, one which combines new and old; tested technique with the latest technology. The lines of super-useful jackets and trousers and brilliant brilliant shirts has been the go-to for Miyake fans, successful men over 40, for years. Miyake now, speaks to a more recent wave of young, successful and fashion-conscious men, new to the brand and brought here by the technical rainwear and pumped-up but subtle sneakers and shoes and, of course, the Bao Bao. A bag design that has caught the imagination of men everywhere. We need to talk about shorts: at Miyake they were tailored and below the knee but super-fluid. And when worn with a smart jacket looked like a new option for a man. If the suit is loosening up then so is the smart jacket. Conversely you saw the line and architecture of the jackets more when teamed with the movement and casual look of those stand-out big shorts. Men who understand design get dressed, here.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
