Dress

Issey Miyake launched his Pleats Please line in 1993. To create the line, he used a patented process called "garment pleating" that involves pleating clothes rather than textiles. The process entails constructing garments at two or three times their intended size, then precisely folding, ironing, and lacing the sewn ensembles, sandwiched between paper, into a heat press. The finished garments are permanently pleated and can be washed and air dried without losing shape. Miyake launched the Pleats Please Guest Artist Series in 1996. For the fourth collaboration in the series, Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang used gunpowder explosions to burn images of dragons, a Chinese symbol for life, onto a group of finished white garments. To produce the line, Miyake adjusted the images for printing on flat fabric before cutting, sewing, and pleating.