In 1965, having graduated with a degree in graphic design from Tama Art University in his native Japan, Issey Miyake would travel to Paris. It was in the French city that the designer would learn his craft: alongside compatriot Kenzo Takada (of fashion house Kenzo), he enrolled at l’École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, studying dressmaking. Later, having founded fashion label Miyake Design Studio in 1970 in Tokyo, he would return to Paris in 1973 to show his collections – a deep-rooted link to the city which would continue throughout his life (the designer would show in Paris until his retirement from the brand in 1997).
Inside Issey Miyake’s luminous new Paris store
A newly opened Issey Miyake Paris store, located in the exclusive Triangle D’Or shopping district, continues this legacy, and marks one of the designer’s final commissions (though formerly retired, the Miyake remained involved in the running of the company until his death in August 2022). Japanese designer and artist Tokujin Yoshioka – who has worked on numerous Issey Miyake projects and stores over the last three decades – remembers first being approached by Miyake in 2021 to work on the store. ’Paris is a centre of fashion and a hub of culture,’ he describes, having masterminded the new space at 28 rue François 1er, which replaces the former flagship on Rue Royale in the 8th arrondissement. Titled ’ISSEY MIYAKE / PARIS’, ’it is a space that gives form to this cultural energy for the future,’ Yoshioka tells Wallpaper*.
The 360 sq m store, which stretches across two stories, is located in the former headquarters of Europe 1 radio station, marking the first time that a retailer has occupied the space. The exterior is typically Parisian – a 19th-century stone facade with vast windows and traditional mouldings – while the interior is designed in Yoshioka’s sleek, modern style, with airy, white-walled rooms interrupted only by angular metal fixtures and glass vitrines. ‘I was thinking [about] combining contemporary elements with the 19th-century French architecture to express the contrast of time,’ explains Yoshioka.
‘The architecture accommodates the space which is designed to be minimalistic, [while] details are designed to give the impression of lightness, as if the clothes were floating,’ he continues. Of those clothes, the store will stock the majority of Issey Miyake’s lines including Issey Miyake, Pleats Please, Homme Plissé, Bao Bao, perfumes, watches, eyewear and more.
Though it is the store’s orange aluminium accent walls – recurring throughout and able to be viewed from the street – which provide the nexus of the space. Representing the rising sun, they are an attempt to capture the joy and levity of Miyake’s design philosophy. ’The aluminium walls are individually coloured with an anodising technique and installed at the site to create a large luminous orange wall, shining like the sun,’ says Yoshioka. ‘[They] express Issey Miyake's philosophy of craftsmanship and energy for the future.’
ISSEY MIYAKE / PARIS, 28 rue François 1er, 75008, Paris is open now.
-
This picky customer finds ‘perfection’ at Nipotina, Mayfair’s new pizza and pasta jointWallpaper* contributing editor Nick Vinson reviews Nipotina, a new Italian restaurant in London offering a carefully edited menu of traditional dishes
-
Giant cats, Madonna wigs, pints of Guinness: seven objects that tell the story of fashion in 2024These objects tell an unconventional story of style in 2024, a year when the ephemera that populated designers’ universes was as intriguing as the collections themselves
-
How 2024 brought beauty and fashion closer than ever before2024 was a year when beauty and fashion got closer than ever before, with runway moments, collaborations and key launches setting the scene for 2025 and beyond
-
Loafer bags to sock shoes, 2024 was all about the mashed-up accessoryWallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss reflects on the rise of the surreal hybrid accessory in 2024, a trend which reflects the disorientating nature of contemporary living – where nothing is quite what it seems
-
‘He immortalised the birth of the supermodel’: inside Dior’s career-spanning retrospective of photographer Peter LindberghOlivier Flaviano, head of Paris’ La Galerie Dior, talks us through a new Peter Lindbergh retrospective, which celebrates the seminal German photographer’s longtime relationship with the French house
-
Inside ‘De toutes beautés!’, the Louvre’s new exhibition narrating 10,000 years of beauty ideals through art‘De toutes beautés!’ marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between the Louvre and L’Oréal Groupe. India Birgitta Jarvis reports on the show for Wallpaper*
-
‘A hat is an alibi, a fabulous lie’: radical milliner Stephen Jones on his career-spanning new Paris exhibitionAs ‘Stephen Jones, Chapeaux d’Artiste’ opens at Paris’ Palais Galliera, the British milliner tells Wallpaper* about the transformative power of hats, the one designer he wishes he’d collaborated with, and his lifelong love of Paris
-
Maude’s Brâncuși-inspired sex toys go on display in a new Paris exhibitionMaude’s design-led vibrators are now on display at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as part of ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’. Brand founder Éva Goicochea talks to Wallpaper* about partnering with the museum and opening up cultural conversations around sex
-
The Wallpaper* S/S 2025 trend report: ‘A rejection of the derivative and the expected’Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss unpacks five trends and takeaways from the S/S 2025 shows, which paid ode to individual style and transformed the everyday
-
Watch: Jamie Dornan takes a bath in Le Corbusier’s villa for Loewe PerfumesJamie Dornan stars alongside Sophie Wilde in the new Loewe Perfumes 2024 campaign, shot by David Sims in Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye
-
Jonathan Lyndon Chase on creating a ‘complicated and messy’ domestic space for Acne Studios’ latest showA musing on ‘emotions and the body, and how they affect the space around you’: American artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase tells Mahoro Seward the story behind their Acne Studios runway set, which will backdrop the brand’s S/S 2025 show in Paris later today
