PLEATED, PLEASE!

There is no other retro-futuristic trend that has become such a staple in the fashion world as pleated polyester.

This material, even though minimalistic, does not miss its lavish. It successfully connects the 80s with the last few years of fashion trends. It has passed 40 years, and at least one fashion empire was built based on pleating in the meantime. We can attach this imperishable trend with Japanese designer Issey Miyake, whose brand still has at least two collections based on pleated polyester: Pleats Please Issey Miyake and Issey Miyake Fête..

Miyake is that designer who is a big friend of Steve Jobs. And not only that, but he was the one who had designed the black turtlenecks that later became the trademark of the CEO of Apple. As Jobs once explained, he asked Issey to make him a few of the turtlenecks he had liked, but instead he had made him hundreds.

Pleating as we know it today has been invented during the 80s of the last century, when Issey Miyake started experimenting with different shaping of materials.

The thing that you maybe did not know about pleating is the way it was done at the beginning. Firstly, they would cut and sew the pieces and after that these would be put in special hot machine press in between paper sheets. And after you take out the sheets, this material holds the shape that was made in the process. This invention was shown in the line ISSEY MIYAKE in 1988, and it grew more and more until it became the whole brand, with collection SS 1994.

The perfect parallel lines that easily change structure, but also come back to their starting parallel point, make some visual magic that women love to wear because pleated pieces are light, don’t crumple and don’t need dry cleaning. Comfortable and good looking, these pieces are highly used in everyday life of urban women, and this corresponds basic concept that is leading Miyake, and that is ‘design is not for philosophy, it is for life’

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