Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, whose career spanned more than half a century, died at the age of 84, an employee at his Tokyo office told AFP on Tuesday.
“He died on the evening of August 5,” she said over the phone, without giving a name and without giving further details about his death. The Japanese public broadcaster NHK also announced his death.
Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima (western Japan) on April 22, 1938 and was seven years old on August 6, 1945 when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in history on his hometown, killing 140,000 people and traumatizing them for life. He survived, but his mother died from radiation three years later.
Having just graduated from Tama University of Fine Arts in Tokyo, he moved to Paris in 1965 and studied at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne school.
Issey Miyake was one of the first Japanese fashion designers to settle in the French capital after working for Guy Laroche and Givenchy.
From the 1980s, he spread his style around the world using materials never before seen in fashion (wire, Japanese craft paper, horsehair…). He was best known for making one-piece dresses and for his pleating technique.
Last June, Rachid Ouramdane, director of the National Theater in Chaillot, staged a parade show of his brand in Paris, bringing together models, artists and a collective of acrobats.