Issey Miyake Spring 2022 Ready To Wear Collection

The section is titled Link Rings, and the garments are made of eight connected circular sections of circular-pleated fabric, which are ingeniously fashioned to lie flat on the floor in an eminently packable way. Lift them up, though, and abracadabra—gravity’s pull coils them into full, fine, volumized garments.

These were just one stand-out sight in a Miyake collection Kondo said was inspired by the sub-aquatic and titled “A Voyage in Descent.” “That’s a metaphor for the creative process,” he said via translator, “We always dig down in our process so the team can explore and discover many things they have never created before.”

Another new territory Kondo and company explored this season was showcased in looks 35 through 37, and called Fluidity Loop. Put very simply, they followed the inspiration of the ocean’s organic forms to create a rib-knit whose ribs ran not straight, but in an arcing spiral.

This circularity changed both the properties and the possibilities of the knit, allowing for simple-looking structural designs with minimal seaming and maximum bounce: really fantastic.

Hand-painted in Kyoto, the early-run group of oversized pants, a skirt, and a one-shouldered dress were dried in a manner designed to create a glistening finish that was less evident in the film or images than to the eye.

A middle-section group, this time printed with a technique named naki, designed to allow colors to bleed together and blend, looked sometimes floral but was based on undersea creatures. We resurfaced with a series of friendly anemone hats at the conclusion. This deep dive into the potential of fabric research to transform the possibilities of design was 360 degrees delightful, most especially those springily Slinky dresses and the strikingly spiralized knitwear.