They say poetry is a window into the soul. Well, Issey Miyake Men's S/S 14 offering must be Yusuke Takahashi's poetry then. Dubbed 'Open the window and look at the world', this was a dynamic, vibrant debut for the newly-appointed menswear designer, which showed off his focused vision for the house and firm understanding of its core DNA. This was about letting light and beauty in - realised in a literal way at the start of the collection when three models in colourful prints appeared at the high windows of the show space and flung open the doors, letting the parisian sunshine stream in. Other pieces, loose in silhouette, came with hazy square prints that resembled actual windows, while some finishes suggested the fine frost and condensation that collects overnight on a pane of glass. Similarly, shirts printed using a two colour graduation process suggested our first and last interactions with the world outside our windows; dawn and sunset.
There were even more prints than usual on the Issey Miyake Men runway. The smash hit tie-dye was back, but a new cracked batik, made using glue, had been introduced, nodding to the house's history of embracing pioneering fabric technologies. Towards the end of the collection, the thumping beat that accompanied the show exploded into a cacophony of tribal-like sounds and a riot of colour appeared - powerful shocking pink, kaleidoscope prints and tomato red - a vision of pure optimism and light. While Takahashi's show notes may have stated that, 'In our daily life we often cross beauty without seeing it', it was truly impossible to miss the brilliance of this collection.
