Satoshi Kondo’s latest collection for Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2025 challenges perceptions of clothing by dissolving the boundaries between fashion and sculpture, offering a playful yet intellectually rigorous exploration of form.
The show opened with a collaboration with Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures, in which models contorted themselves into living installations using clothing as props. A pair of sky-blue pants became a surreal canvas when worn inside out, while asymmetrical knits draped like carved stone defied traditional silhouettes. This dialogue between body and object set the tone for a collection titled “[N]ither [N]or” – a study in contrasts that challenged viewers to reconsider what defines a garment.
Kondo’s designs oscillated between abstraction and tangibility. Early looks featured cotton pieces printed with trompe l’oeil images of three-dimensional ribbed textures, creating optical illusions that dissolved upon closer inspection. Tailoring reappeared in unexpected forms: papery fabrics folded into alabaster-like curves, and jackets with exaggerated shoulders tapered to cinched waists. The designer’s signature technical innovation shone through in seamless knit dresses that combined different stitch patterns, their crimson surfaces resembling molten sculpture.
A series of padded shifts and t-shirts wrapped in sheer overlays evoked Miyake’s iconic futon coats, their padded volumes nodding to comfort while subverting expectations of structure. Playfulness emerged in looks made from heat-pressed wool-alpaca blends, resulting in crisp, lustrous surfaces striped in mint and ivory. Accessories took center stage in meta-commentary pieces – totes transformed into tunics, their handles repurposed as sleeves – blurring the lines between functional object and wearable.
The finale featured lightweight garments with architectural volume: twisted swaths of fabric in monochrome, followed by breezy dresses in citrus hues that billowed like suspended origami. Kondo’s refusal to settle for binary definitions extended to materials, where matte knits contrasted with iridescent synthetics and rigid thermoplastic panels met fluid drapery.
Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2025 thrived on ambiguity, proving that clothing can exist simultaneously as art and utility. Through sculptural experimentation and technical mastery, Kondo invites wearers to embrace the undefined – a vision that is both intellectually daring and quietly revolutionary.
©Photo: Issey Miyake