In 1983, when the silhouette sheathed in black plastic or woven rattan from the BODYWORKS series appeared in Tokyo galleries, what was at stake was not adornment but the physical boundary assigned to anatomy. Four decades later, ISSEY MIYAKE’s Autumn-Winter 2026/27 collection takes up the same question while reversing its charge: rigidity no longer constrains the flesh, it delineates its resonance.
The armature is born in Echizen, in Fukui Prefecture, the historic cradle of washi paper. There, large fibrous handmade sheets are torn by hand, then laminated with glue onto a resin mould produced by 3D printing. This synthetic skeleton serves as a temporary support for the plant pulp. Once the mass has dried and bonded, the volume leaves the west coast for the workshops of Kyoto. There, lacquer artisans apply successive layers of natural urushi, coat after coat, with slow drying in between. Under the effect of the polymerised sap, the vulnerability of the washi is transformed into a dense, dark and lustrous shell, which retains the imprint of the original tearing beneath a mineral surface.
The bustier and corset thus formed borrow the structural tension of the obi. Yet, far from medieval armour or the Western orthopaedic brace, the piece holds itself at a measured distance from the torso: it frames the body without compressing it. The design intervention stops precisely where the void begins, allowing the empty space to act as a structural component of the garment. By hybridising digital modelling and centuries-old lacquer, the Maison refrains from taming the material, the better to record its accidents. The silhouette does not disappear beneath the object; it asserts itself in the silent interval that separates them.
Availability: September 2026 at 28 rue François-Ier (Paris 8th) and the curatorial presentation “URUSHI BODY: Between Body and Matter” at the ISSEY MIYAKE Ginza / 445, Semba and Kyoto spaces.
Materials and provenance: washi paper from Echizen (Fukui Prefecture), urushi lacquer worked in Kyoto, 3D-printed matrix.
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