Issey Miyake Installation

Issey Miyake is taking over its Milan store for 15 days, from April 21 to May 5, instead of dropping a collection into one runway slot and moving on. The project is called “The Paper Log: Shell and Core,” and it opens during Milan Design Week, which runs April 20 to 26 across the city. (dezeen.com) (comune.milano.it) The installation sits at Issey Miyake Milan on Via Bagutta 12, and the brand says it was conceived by Satoshi Kondo of Miyake Design Studio with Spanish architecture office Ensamble Studio. That pairing tells you what this is: not a fashion show with chairs, but a design exhibition built with architects. (isseymiyake.com) (dezeen.com) The raw material is unusually specific. Issey Miyake says the whole project starts with compressed rolls of thin paper used to protect fabric inside its garment pleating process. (isseymiyake.com) Those rolls are big enough to read like industrial objects before anyone designs with them: about 80 centimeters high and 40 centimeters in diameter, according to the brand. Issey Miyake calls them “paper logs” because the circular cross-sections look like tree rings. (isseymiyake.com) Satoshi Kondo first pushed that material beyond the factory after spotting its texture and cylinder shape during a plant visit. The brand says he cut the rolls into stools that were then used as seating and installation pieces for the Issey Miyake Spring Summer 2025 show in Paris. (isseymiyake.com) Milan is the next step, and it splits the material into two families. Ensamble Studio made the “Shell” works by peeling paper from the logs, shaping or wrapping it around objects, and then hardening it so the folds and creases stay frozen in place. (isseymiyake.com) Issey Miyake’s own project team made the “Core” works as furniture prototypes, including stools, chairs, and tables. The brand says those pieces were tested with treatments like wax dipping, glue hardening, and bundling to see how far the material could be pushed. (isseymiyake.com) That shell-versus-core setup is really a fashion house talking in architecture language. Dezeen says the installation treats garment ideas as architectural objects, which fits Ensamble Studio’s practice of turning material research into structures, furniture, and spaces. (dezeen.com) (isseymiyake.com) Issey Miyake has been using Milan Design Week this way for more than one season. In 2025, its A-POC ABLE line worked with atelier oï on a project that turned a single piece of cloth and wire into lighting during the same citywide design event. (designboom.com) So the news here is not just one installation opening on April 21. It is a fashion brand using Milan’s biggest design week to show process, waste material, furniture prototypes, and documentary footage in a store exhibition that lasts until May 5, long after the fair’s busiest days are over. (isseymiyake.com) (comune.milano.it)