Issey Miyake’s first collection was launched in New York in 1971, and began to be shown in Paris Fashion Week from Fall/Winter 1973.
From the very beginning to this day, Issey Miyake’s design has focused on the concept of “A Piece of Cloth”. Issey Miyake broke the boundaries between East and West and pursued “the body, the fabric covering it and a comfortable relationship between the two” as a fundamental concept, both shocking and resonating with people the world over.

Miyake laid the foundation in Paris for avant-garde designers worldwide, the Japanese ones in particular. He was showing in Paris long before other Japanese designers, and his presence was further pronounced by the emergence of two influential, norm-breaking designers.

Rei Kawakubo, working under the label Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto began to present their collections in Paris in 1981 along with the already-established Miyake, who is considered the founding father of the new fashion trend. These three effectively started a new school of Japanese avant-garde fashion, although it was never their intention to classify themselves as such.