Japanese icon/designer Issey Miyake recently collaborated with engineers and pattern makers to launch his first clothing line in more than a decade called 132 5. The collection was created from a fusion of both theoretical math, attractive design inspired by origami and a hi-tech new polyester fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. In the name “132 5,” the numeral “1” refers to the single piece of cloth, “3” to its 3D shape, which can be folded back into “2,” or two dimensions. The “5” corresponds to the multiple ways each garment can be worn, reports Suzy Menkes of the New York Times.

“For me, it’s a very powerful idea to actually change the meaning of something,” he tells Susannah Frankel of The Independent. “Like the Walkman, for example. You know, it completely changed the idea of sound, and that’s great. My dream, and the reason I first decided to open my studio, was that I thought to myself, if I could one day make clothes like T-shirts and jeans, I would be very excited.”

A garment from Issey Miyake’s 132 5 collection

Reality Lab,  (a team of young designers and engineers with whom he works with to develop pioneering clothing) launched the line with Miyake and purposefully created the designs as easy to wear as a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. The idea for the wearer is to literally step in and let the garment unfold, fastening where needed. The pieces are also easy to pack away and store and equally beautiful just laying flat “as the proverbial pancake, only to be unfolded by a woman wishing to wear it.”

For Miyake, the launch of 132 5 follows his other forward thinking collections, “Pleats Please” a crinkle fabric collection and A-POC (a piece of cloth), where cloth is cut by a computer, creating continuous tubes of fabric which include both shape and pattern. The customer cuts sleeves and skirts exactly to the length he wants.

Designs cut from Issey Miyake’s A-POC line

Miyake’s ultimate goal with all this research? A focus on the future of Japan’s fashion industry talent and factories closing down.

He tells The National: “This is a critical stage where we must focus upon this grave situation and think seriously about the future of making things.”

The exhibition that showcases the new 132 5 collection and how it was made, runs at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo until December 26.

Top Image of Issey Miyake with a 132 5 garment courtesy of The National

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