Some things are timeless and I count Issey Miyake's clothing line as one of them. Since the late 1980's I've visited his boutiques in Japan and Manhattan, and collected bits and pieces of his ready-to-wear. I still own most of them and wear them even today.
When I took up sewing recently I was delighted to discover that a large number of vintage Miyake patterns were available on Etsy or Ebay. Some are far too complicated and slender to fit to my body but others were intriguing and looked like a lot of fun to make. I am especially fascinated by his patterns with instructions that are similar to folding origami. Sometimes he provides only one pattern piece that somehow folds and sews into a recognizable blouse.
I recently completed a Miyake pleated blouse from Vogue 1142. The blouse consisted of two rectangular pattern pieces and two small placket pieces for the front and back neck openings. It was difficult to imagine how these simple pieces could result in the elegant blouse depicted on the pattern envelope.
The fabric I selected was black handkerchief linen. It's lightweight and easy to work with. I had purchased five yards of this fabric to replicate a pair of wide-legged Miyake pants with a paperbag waistline. The fabric was wider than expected so I had enough to make the pants and the blouse. The pants construction will not be discussed here.
The biggest challenge in this pattern was exercising patience. I spent days in pre-sewing preparations, sewing tailor tacks to mark all the small and large dots and marking the pleat lines with silk thread. I also decided to edge-stitch all the pleats, both in the front and back of the garment pieces so that the pleats would still be there after washing.The edge stitches came out perfectly thanks to my Bernina edge stitch foot, which I have never used before. It kept the fabric from pulling away from the machine and I got great even stitches right at the edge of each pleat.. The stitches were perfect but here is where I made a big mistake. I sewed the pleats on the wrong side of the fabric. Thankfully, it doesn't really matter with this black fabric as the front and reverse are essentially the same.
The placket pieces were very small, and therefore difficult to turn over to the reverse side after slashing the fabric. If I make this blouse again I will increase the size of the plackets by half an inch all around. I wasn't sure if the armholes would fit me properly so I sewed the side seams half an inch below the markings. This adjustment worked out perfectly.
Interestingly, once the handstitch prep-work and pleating were done, it was a quick blouse to pull together - sew the side seams and the shoulder seams and it was done! I had my doubts about how the blouse would turn out until the shoulder seams went in. But the finished result is beautiful! Here it is on a dress form but it looks even better on the human body. It is a very flattering blouse and ingeniously designed.
Since the 1990's Issey's ready-to-wear line has utilized machine-pleated polyester fabric, which he shapes into dramatically geometric dresses, skirts, tops and coats. But I miss the wonderful hand-woven fabrics in cotton and linen that he used in his earlier work and the hand-pleating techniques he employed. The ability to recreate that early Miyake sensibility is what these wonderful patterns bring to the table.
