“Beauty and joy”
Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake was seven years old when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on his city in August 1945..
He survived the explosion that left some 140,000 dead and opened the door to the conclusion of World War IIafter another nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
“I never wanted to share my memories or thoughts of that day,” Miyake wrote in the New York Times in 2009.
“I have tried, but without success, to leave them behind, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.”
The designer studied at an art school in Tokyo and moved to Paris in 1965, where he studied at the select Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
He established the Miyake Design Studio in 1970 in Tokyo and soon after opened his first store in Paris.
By 1980, his career was in full swing and he began experimenting with materials such as plastic, metal, wire, and even Japanese craft paper.
His inventions include the “Pleats Please” line, garments with permanent pleats that don’t wrinkle, the futuristic triangles on his “Bao Bao” bag, and his “A-POC (A Piece Of Cloth)” concept, which uses computers to cut seamless whole garments.
He also made more than 100 turtleneck garments for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.