Issey Miyake’s team, under the strict direction of Satoshi Kondo, built Spring and Summer 2025 around paper. From this paper (ready to recycle, by the way), round stools emerged on which the guests of the show sat.
Models were released barefoot or with socks over their shoes. They were dressed in translucent white dresses with intricate face-covering curtains and futuristic hoods. Next we saw looks (trousers, jacket and trench coat; jacket-style dresses with active shoulders), which in their pure form looked like paper: they were sewn from washi (hemp paper) and silk viscose. Thus, Kondo was able to create folded items that were both flexible and rigid, and whose surface retained the texture of traditional Japanese hemp paper.
The brand’s team placed pressed leaves and flowers in the models’ eyes and faces, and layered dresses in a beautiful sheer, creamy fabric over cozy leggings; dusty reddish-brown pants were noticeably “puffy” at the hips, and sweaters became bustier blouses; I folded the t-shirts and used the clips as decoration and as a reference to the stationery clips used to hold paper; I handed her purses, paper bags with baguettes, and green twigs freshly cut from the garden. Of course, traditional pleating was also present in the form of draped dresses in black and subtle lilacs and creams.
