Polyester is easy to work with and results in clothing that is well suited to the needs of a modern lifestyle.
— Issey Miyake
Clothes have become more personal, more a matter of very individual taste.
Think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.
I like women who have their own idea of life: the woman who is assured, comfortable with herself, strong inside, proud of herself - not in an arrogant way, not showing off.
Function alone does not make clothing appealing.
My fascination has been the space between cloth and the body, and using a two-dimensional element to clothe a three-dimensional form.
All of my work stems from the simplest of ideas that go back to the earliest civilizations: making clothing from one piece of cloth. It is my touchstone.
The important thing is to make something. In reality, it's not important that a designer be known by name - you can remain anonymous. Even the status of a designer will undergo changes, I believe.
I am very interested in the culture of paper.
I never thought fashion was the job for me, because I'm Japanese. Clothes! That was a European, society thing.
I tried never to be defined by my past.
Men have been buying my women's coats for years.
In fashion, you need to present something new every six months, but it takes time to study things. Development is very important.
When I first began working in Japan, I had to confront the Japanese people's excessive worship for foreign goods and the fixed idea of what clothes ought to be. I wanted to change the rigid formula of clothing that the Japanese followed.
The combination of human skills with technology will always be at the root of any solution to the future of making clothes.
I am not sentimental about the past. I like to think about what is next.
Technology allows us to do many things, but it is always important to combine it with traditional handcrafts and, in fact, use technology to replicate dying arts so that they are not lost.
I always wanted to create clothing that was universal - easy to wear, to care for, and that was also beautiful. As such, I became interested in polyester, and its potential, from the beginning of my career.
With imagination and personal creativity, people who sew can design the way they look to suit themselves.
When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape - I remember it all.
I try to be free. The women also must be free.
Retire? Never! We are far too busy!
A few of the influences on my career so far have been Isamu Noguchi, Irving Penn, and seeing the riots of 1968 in Paris.
Clothing is the closest thing to all humans.
In Paris, we call the people who make clothing 'couturiers' - they develop new clothing items - but actually, the work of designing is to make something that works in real life.
My touchstone started out being - and is still - exploring the ways by which to make clothing from a single piece of cloth.
I gravitated towards the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.
The core spirit of Pleats Please is joy, and what better emotion to wear on your skin every day?
Boys have been wearing skirts for some time now. My three assistants wear mini skirts. They come to work on their motorcycles wearing mini skirts. The French saw the idea on the streets and have done it in better fabrics, and now everyone says, 'Ah!'
Everything is an experiment.
I am neither a writer nor a theorist. For a person who creates things to utter too many words means to regulate himself - a frightening prospect.
Our goals must be to find new, environmentally-friendly ways by which to continue the art of creation, to utilize our valuable human skills, and to make things that will bring joy.
Designers must be increasingly sensitive to our Earth's dwindling resources. It is our responsibility.
A-POC respects that there is a fine balance between the value of the human touch, which can be called artisanal, and the abilities of technology. I like to think of it as poesy and technology.
Clothes should fit comfortably - not too tightly - so that you have space to move in and think freely.
If Mr. Obama could walk across the Peace Bridge in Hiroshima - whose balustrades were designed by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi as a reminder both of his ties to East and West and of what humans do to one another out of hatred - it would be both a real and a symbolic step toward creating a world that knows no fear of nuclear threat.
I feel it is urgently necessary to train people who are capable of tackling the various problems we face today in regards to environmental turmoil and the relevancy of clothing.
We yearn for the beautiful, the unknown, and the mysterious.
Design is a vital component to the enrichment of our everyday lives. Japan has a very rich history and culture of design, and I feel it is a very important dialogue to open and keep evolving.
I believe that all forms of creativity are related.
I am most interested in people and the human form.
Indian paper is famous, Egyptian papyrus, Chinese paper... every country has used this natural material. But the problem is it's going to run out because it's very difficult work.
Clothing has been called intimate architecture. We want to go beyond that.
Many people repeat the past. I'm not interested. I prefer evolution.
I love to be free to explore, research, and evolve.
Paul Poiret did wonderful things because he was so influenced by motifs, but Vionnet really understood the kimono and took the geometric idea to construct her clothes - and that brought such freedom into European clothes in the 1920s.
I do not create a fashionable aesthetic... I create a style based on life.
In the Eighties, Japanese fashion designers brought a new type of creativity; they brought something Europe didn't have. There was a bit of a shock effect, but it probably helped the Europeans wake up to a new value.
I am always looking to the future of making things.
If you look back throughout history from the ancient Egyptians onwards, most cultures started making clothing from a very basic premise: a single piece of cloth.
