Homme Plissé Issey Miyake: Water-resistant chic

The great Issey Miyake may have left us two years ago, but his house is still in fine fettle judging from the inventive and enjoyable show the brand presented in Paris on Thursday morning.

Hyper positive in mood and brilliantly layered, the collection was a fine meeting of nomadic plissé ideas, dashing color and water-resistant chic.
 
Staged in the courtyard of the 1930s Rational style Mobilier National, the show opened with lots of beach stripe ideas, windowpane checks and colorful plaids. Though the selection was so good the mélange never became a clash.

They were followed by a series of total mono-color looks in plissé technical fabrics. Pants, shorts, vests, gilets, scarves all lightly layered and made in peach, dusty lilac or ecru.
 
Constructed in huge shards of fabrics, the clothes swaddled the cast, who clearly loved what they were wearing. Marching self-confident to a keening soundtrack by Matthew Herbert.

Cowls, skullcaps and hoods on many models under a Paris sky that has threatened and delivered rain for months. Though the best ideas were the billowing raingear. As any visitor to Tokyo can tell you, it rains a lot in the Land of the Rising Sun. One of the reasons that Miyake is the single best resource of fashion raingear of any marque anywhere. Lime green, dark orange, faded turquoise – the color palette was beautiful.
 
A charming installation by Vincent de Belleval decorated the courtyard with scores of white disks on two-meter poles, swaying in unison to the direction of the wind. The better to contrast the wonderful water-resistant chic that climaxed this show. 
 
Knowing Issey, I think the design master would have been very happy.