Voxfrock’s week of rare Parisian treats – essays from the lense and pen of Elli Ioannou – continues with her unique, back and front views of two runways: Issey Miyake’s and Kym Ellery’s. (Tomorrow our final instalment of Elli’s Eyes features the Paris showroom of a remarkable pearl jewellery designer.)
Issey Miyake
One of the many traits that separate Issey Miyake from his peers is his approach to nurturing young designers. He gives them a platform on which they can develop their skills during a five year tenure. A true master.
Yoshiyuki Miyamae is current designer of Issey Miyake womenswear. He has been a member of the design team since 2006 under Dai Fujiwara, and took the baton in 2010 after Fujiwara’s exit.
Miyamae’s autumn-winter 2016 collection was a visual homage to the origins of Issey Miyake’s signature style: traditional shapes, colors, textures and his innovative fusion of technology, art and fashion.
Thematically titled BEYOND, the collection drew inspiration from the vastness of the universe and the beauty of cloth subjected to Baked Stretch and 3D Steam Stretch techniques.
Before the show, a multitude of final preparations from the various production teams happened simultaneously and calmly. At times, it appeared more like a theatre rehearsal; testing lighting, runway, choreography, model positions, last minute alteration of garments, with the electronic sounds of experimental duo Ei Wada and Haruka Yoshida of the Open Reel Ensemble as they played ecstatically, oblivious to all around.
By the final rehearsal (a prime time, unusually intimate, for photographers to capture something different) it felt like a full house. At least 150 people were in the audience; an array of VIPs, buyers, shop managers and press from the global team of Issey Miyake who had arrived, all wearing the brand head-to-toe and carrying a version of the must have Bao Bao bag. Welcome to the universe of Issey Miyake…
Ellery (main photo, top)
Perth-raised Kym Ellery established her eponymous brand in 2007 via a fashion design and production degree, a summer course at London’s Central St Martins, and four years at Australian RUSSH magazine.
After Collette Dinnigan, Kym is only the second Australia-based designer invited by the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode to show in her own right on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule.
Kym works with mills in Switzerland and Italy, developing innovative fabric textures, then oversees production of her collections in Sydney.
In Paris, she showed her autumn winter 2016 collection at the uber contemporary gallery, Palais des Tokyo.
Metallic gold and bronze dresses, dress shirts, leather dresses, velvet dresses, fur coats and tweed ankle-length coats tied with long straps…
….were presented next to white shirt dresses with billowy Laura Ashley’esque sleeves and leather ankle boots that could have come directly from Soho in London, circa 1970s.
Elli Ioannou, info@voxfrock.com.au
