Strike a pose

In 2016, Andreas Murkudis visited Tokyo, where he saw the Issey Miyake retrospective at the National Art Center. This landmark exhibition, which included clothing and sketches, as well as the machines that create those famous pleats, spurred Andreas to seek a new way of displaying Miyake at the store.

For the launch of the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake spring series, Andreas Murkudis presented an exclusive installation of Pascal Monfort’s thrilling campaign video, featuring male dancers voguing in the collection and offering flashes of Shunga imagery with each fluid gesture. A gorgeous celebration of antique Japanese culture, the spring series showcased delicately erotic paintings by Japanese masters Utamaro, Hokusai and Kiyonaga transposed onto kimono-style coats, as well as shirts, jackets and a stole, for a lust-worthy collection stacked with secret accents and hidden meanings.

Andreas is continually impressed by the creativity, quality and enduring vision of Japanese designers such as Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons‘ Rei Kawakubo, and takes great pleasure in Miyake’s synthesis of the arts. “With this collection, Issey Miyake masterfully fuses art history, dance and clothing,” he says. “I’m mesmerised by the interplay between the body, fabric and artwork.” The word ‘desirable’ just gained a whole new dimension.