Issey Miyake was only seven years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At the time of the explosion, he was sitting quietly in his classroom. For three years, he saw his mother die from radiation exposure. “When I close my eyes, I still see things that no one should ever experience,” he told the New York Times. “I tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to leave it all behind, preferring to think of things that can be created rather than destroyed, that bring beauty and joy. I’ve been designing clothes in part because it’s a creative form, something modern and upbeat.”

He was described as a visionary, fashion wizard. He was certainly a devoted worker for her. Issei Miyake, a pioneer of Japanese creativity, passed away yesterday in Tokyo at the age of 84 after battling cancer. The designer opened his atelier in 1970 and was one of the first Japanese designers to showcase his work in Paris, along with travelers such as Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. Colors, innovative fabrics and the concept of clothes that give freedom dominated the world of Issey Miyake.

In addition to his collections of the same name, Miyake created in the late 1980s the unsurpassed Pleats Please series, as well as projects such as A-POC (Piece of Cloth), in which he explored the needs of modern clothing: wrapping fabrics between layers of fabric. paper and placing them in a heat press, while the clothes retained their pleated shape, Miyake made a real earthquake in the fashion world. Along with ready-to-wear, he also created a series of successful perfumes such as L’eau d’Issey. He retired in 1997 to devote himself to research. In 2016, when asked what challenges he thought future designers would face, he prophetically stated that people would likely have to work with fewer resources. “We may have to go through a removal process,” he said.