Miyake: Homme Plissé

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake is a collection inspired by Shunga, a genre of Ukiyo-e, which achieved great popularity as a form of entertainment during the Edo Period in Japan.

In 2016, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake unveils a special series focusing on Shunga, a genre of Ukiyo-e, which achieved great popularity as a form of entertainment amongst ordinary people during the Edo Period in Japan.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Spring Series. Photo Charles Negro

Everywhere in the world, since the dawn of time, there have existed many art works dealing with lust and passion between the sexes. The art of Shunga is no exception and is infinitely familiar to art enthusiasts across the globe. Whilst it was prohibited to distribute these artworks openly in public, Shunga art became so popular and in so much demand at that time, that prominent Ukiyo-e artists such as; Hokusai, Utamaro and Harunobu themselves became involved in its production. Today, Shunga art is highly valued and considered to be one of the most important categories of Japanese art, making them the subject of acquisition in some of the world’s most prestigious art institutions including the British Museum in London, which in 2013 held a special exhibition showcasing this art under the title “Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese Art”.

*Sode no maki (tirato per la manica)* di Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815)

The charm of Shunga art is not merely its obvious eroticism, but rather that is closely linked to its pictorial expression; sometimes humorously deformed sexual organs or spontaneously portrayed sexual acts as well as exquisitely depicted kimono patterns and vividly delineated interiors. It is this dynamism for life driven by a sense of humour and the power of everyday eroticism that ordinary people of the time had in addition to their intelligent and urbane way of life, which Homme Plissé Issey Miyake recognizes in Shunga which led to the development of this special series. Thus the new Homme Plissé Issey Miyake series continues its idiosyncratic approach with its mission to continue making a new kind of everyday clothing for contemporary men by combining the research with comfort and functionality‐lightness, wrinkle resistance, wash-ability and quick drying‐with the rediscovery and reworking of traditional Japanese sartorial ideas and skills, including patterns and styles.

Homme Plissé Spring Series
Design: Reality Lab / Issey Miyake
Commercialisation: November 2016

Miyake: Homme Plissé

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake is a collection inspired by Shunga, a genre of Ukiyo-e, which achieved great popularity as a form of entertainment during the Edo Period in Japan.

Sodales purus vel vero possimus temporibus venenatis

Sodales purus vel vero possimus temporibus venenatis