Issey Miyake Spring/Summer 2026: An Empowering Collection

By Jesse Scott

“What if garments are conscious?” That was the question at the heart of Satoshi Kondo’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection for Issey Miyake, as the ever-intellectual Japanese designer embarked on a nuanced sartorial exploration of a world in which clothes wear humans instead of human swearing clothes. Subverting our preconceptions about the power and purpose of clothing, Kondo considered why we make certain fashion choices then proposed an imaginative reality in which fabrics themselves have unprecedented agency over these decisions. 

The Miyake universe offered a powerful and thought-provoking commentary on fashion and society not because it was outrageous but because it was just a couple of degrees separated from the truth. Yes, we consciously select certain clothes to exhibit our self-identity and express values. Yes, it is our predecessors (sometimes by decades, sometimes by mere weeks) who have ascribed clothes with any or all sociocultural meaning facilitating this paradigm. Nonetheless, as we walk the streets as nameless faces whose interactions with most people we encounter will be limited to a quick glance, it is our clothes, not us, that do the talking. A sports jersey demonstrating a shared city, country, or affinity…a single earring subtly signaling sexual orientation….distressed jeans representing rebellion…a suit exuding authority. These garments all can provide more profound impressions of self simply through their existence than we do in entire conversations. Thus, this season Kondo’s fantasy illustrates reality. “Endowing clothes with self-awareness,” he empowers us by expanding our perceived relationship between the wearer and the worn into a realm less tangible but more truthful.  The result is as aesthetically pleasing as it is philosophically powerful. 

Being Garments, Being Sentient: An Exploration through Sounds and Sensation

This Miyake collection, presented at the Centre Pompidou, was possessed of a particular sensitivity and viscerally. Clothes flowed in unexpected ways through an expansive runway space decorated with a carefully curated array of organic materials. From porcelain to pottery, stone to water, artist Tarek Atoui emphasized natural forms to harmonize with the soothing sound composition echoing through the Centre Pompidou. These forms were echoed by the garments, which, while understated for Kondo, revealed new layers of geometric complexity with each glance. Some shirts bulked in the shoulders like American football pads, a lightweight trompe d’oeil armor (Looks 1, 3). Others had double collars, often asymmetrically presented as if irreverently arranged by the garment itself in an act of conscious rebellion (Looks 9, 11). 

Iseey Miyake Spring/Summer 2026: Looks 1, 3, 9, 11 (Images courtesy of Issey Miyake)

Sleeves were worn in unexpected ways (Looks 8, 10), slouchy trousers were fashioned from jackets, and some pants appeared double-layered as if the clothes were dressing themselves (Look 2). Meanwhile, some silhouettes possessed seemingly impossible structures, suspending into dramatic hoods or chunky shoulders without any immediately visible forms of support (Looks 36, 37). Like a mathematician discovering new formulas to explain mysterious phenomena, Kondo created perfect order from what to the untrained eye would appear as chaos. His development of an immersive experience in collaboration with Atoui and emphasis on naturally occurring forms ensured that a sense of harmony prevailed even when boldly colored or dramatically cut looks appeared (Look 43). 

Issey Miyake Spring/Summer 2026: Looks 8, 10, 2, 36, 37, 43 (Images courtesy of Issey Miyake)

Accessorize Animate Collection in Synthesis of Playfulness and Practicality

Issey Miyake became the latest brand to wink at household objects through accessories this season, walking a happy line between playfulness and practicality. Models walked with CAMPERLAB boxes, a reference to the casual cool footwear collaboration that Miyake debuted this year. Purses appeared to be brown paper bag and tubular garments enveloped familiar items, such as cleaning supplies and artistic tools. The collection was playful but not for the sake of being playful and practical but not for the sake of being practical, ultimately proposing a new lens through which to view clothing while leaving our potential use of that lens open to interpretation. Kondo was not lecturing us through his innovations, as some contemporary designers are wont to do, but instead inviting us on a voyage through his own curiosity that yet has no defined destination.

Empowering People through Empowering Clothes

One particularly memorable capsule of looks, in which garments seemed to grow out of garments or envelop themselves like vines, can be seen as a metaphor for the full collection. Kondo told journalists that he was inspired by small plants growing from cracks in the pavement. These plants are pioneers, pushing against an established environment, endgame unknown, guided only by their own vitality and determination for growth. In conceptualizing a new vision for how we perceive our relationship with clothes, Kondo is doing the same thing. Through an elaborate thought experiment through which he purports to empower clothes as conscious beings with feeling, he is in fact empowering us to grow sartorially and philosophically. Part of the Miyake legacy is an ability to mold society’s perception of fashion, subverting pre-conceptions, so that said society can mold a new reality. The ideas planted by Kondo this season could have a revolutionary impact on our industry, and the way that fashion insiders and outsiders alike view daily “fashion choices,” for years to come.