Case Study: Issey Miyake, the Dream Weaver

(page 2 of 2)

CREATING RIPPLES.

How and why did Miyake decide to make the foray into furnishings? When A-POC made its retail debut in 2000, Miyake designed a chair using the fabric. But then last year he was approached by Arad, who was long inspired by Miyake's inventive approach to creating new materials and processes. Arad points out that his curvaceous plastic Ripple chair, produced by Italian manufacturer Moroso, features what looks a lot like sculpted versions of Miyake's signature pleats.

"I did the Ripple chair, rather than do normal upholstery. And I have to say, when anyone does anything with ripples, it makes you think of Issey Miyake's work!" Arad says enthusiastically, the exclamation points palpable in his speech. "The design influence was there before we collaborated, so I thought, why not call A-POC? And what a go it was!"

HUMAN ELEMENT.

The collaboration was a natural one. Arad and Miyake, both luminaries of avant-garde design, were already friends. Yet they had never crossed the boundaries of fashion and industrial design to collaborate on a single consumer product. Arad was intrigued by several aspects of Miyake's concept. "I thought A-POC was a very exciting way to make garments and fabrics that are so individual and amazingly adaptable by the end user. The idea is in contrast with the computer-controlled, industrial-machine process of making them," says Arad.

He also was turned off by the thought of chair coverings sewn in possibly exploitative factories. "Working for the furniture industry and researching upholstery, I saw rows and rows of sewing machines and sweatshops. And I thought, why can't we harness A-POC's knowledge and inventiveness to our field as well?" Arad adds.

And Miyake thought Arad's use of a streamlined industrial process used to mold and manufacture the Ripple chair illustrated that the two designers were working on parallel tracks, despite their different disciplines. "Ron was experimenting making furniture using the single process technique. That's how we make A-POC. The two concepts were an ideal fit," writes Miyake via e-mail.

"LIKE BREAD OR WATER."

The chair, unveiled on the trade-show circuit at Milan's International Furniture Fair in April (see BW Online, 4/11/06, "Milan: A Fresh Look at Furniture"), will make its retail debut in mid-fall. The A-POC Gemini chair cover costs $1,360, and the Ripple chair sells for $400. Both will be available in limited quantities at the Issey Miyake boutique in Manhattan's trendy TriBeCa neighborhood.

Just as a comfortable seat and jackets are essential to contemporary life, so too are comfortable jeans. The everyday-ness of jeans inspired Miyake and Fujiwara to take on the denim market. "Jeans are like bread or water for human clothing. Everyone wears them every day. But sometimes it's boring. This is the gate of entrance for us. We are thinking of something general to make new," explains Fujiwara.

Ever open to design challenges, Miyake and Fujiwara realized denim -- a very thick weave, one that, by today's often-complicated jean styles, usually includes intentional fraying or distressed fabric -- would be hard to tackle using the A-POC model. And Miyake and Fujiwara didn't want to make yet another pair of look-alike designer dungarees to add to an already-crowded marketplace. So they decided to try something even more unusual than merely jeans woven from a single thread. They decided to create reversible jeans.

NO LIMITS.

The high-concept, high-end dungarees, called "Jupiter," will debut in a new exhibition "Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture," at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Opening on Sept. 24, the show addresses the crossover between cutting-edge fashion and cutting-edge design. Jupiter will be shown alongside the Gemini chair cover and Ripple chair. The jeans will hit stores soon thereafter.

What's next for A-POC? As the Jupiter and Gemini branding of the latest A-POC products implies, the sky is the limit. As Fujiwara says, A-POC is "Very laboratory! Like jellyfish arms. Issey moves in so many directions…he has so much energy and touches everything."

Jana is a writer with BusinessWeek.com in New York.