Japanese fashion icon Issey Miyake dies of liver cancer

Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake has passed away, his office announced on Tuesday. He was 84. Miyake, an icon of the Japanese fashion industry, died on Saturday after battling liver cancer, according to the Kyodo news agency. A private funeral has already taken place, his office confirmed.

Miyake became the symbol of Japanese fashion for his boldly sculpted, signature pleated pieces. His origami-like pleats transformed crass polyester into chic. He adopted computer technology in weaving to create apparel.

The late designer’s clothing was meant to celebrate the human body irrespective of its status quo. w will best remember a symbol of Japan’s fashion and economic prowess in the 1980s, the legendary designer for designing the iconic black turtlenecks for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.


Behind the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry, Miyake had a traumatic past that he tried his best not to make public. Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake was just seven-years-old when the United States nuked Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. He was inside a classroom when the bombing happened.

Mostly hesitant to discuss the bombing in a public forum, Miyake spoke to the New York Times in 2009 about the incident. In his own words, he didn’t want to be termed as “the designer who survived” Hiroshima.

He wanted to be more than that. He talked about how his troubled past still bothered him and how visions of that fateful day still came to him every time he closed his eyes.

Miyake described the ordeal as something “no one should ever experience.” His mother died of radiation exposure three years after the bombing.

Miyake said he tried to put the incident behind him but was unsuccessful. He instead preferred to think about things that can be created, not destroyed.



To escape his troubled past, Miyake gravitated toward the fashion world. He found it to be a creative format, which was modern and optimistic.
He studied graphic design in Tokyo and later learned clothing design in Paris. Miyake moved to New York for a short while, but he returned to Tokyo in 1970 and founded the Miyake Design Studio.

Soon after, the designer became a star in Europe. His brown top that combined sashiko, a Japanese sewn fabric, with raw silk knit adorned the cover of Elle in its September 1973 issue.

Miyake took design inspirations from cultural and societal motifs and everyday items. He designed the official Olympic uniform for Lithuania in 1992.

As his designer wear went beyond the mundane, Miyake remained unpretentious, constantly approving of the “t-shirt and jeans” look. And that’s exactly the look he gave Steve Jobs.

Despite all the publicity that Miyake gained across the globe, he kept his family life private. It remains unknown if any family survives him.