Quotes from Issey Miyake

When I first began working in Japan, I had to confront the Japanese people's excessive worship for foreign goods and the fixed idea of what clothes ought to be. I wanted to change the rigid formula of clothing that the Japanese followed.

Many people repeat the past. I'm not interested. I prefer evolution.

Designers must be increasingly sensitive to our Earth's dwindling resources. It is our responsibility.

I am neither a writer nor a theorist. For a person who creates things to utter too many words means to regulate himself - a frightening prospect.

All of my work stems from the simplest of ideas that go back to the earliest civilizations: making clothing from one piece of cloth. It is my touchstone.

Architects always have a feel for time - the generation they live in - as we do, and they are always striving toward boundless adventure.

I love to be free to explore, research, and evolve.

I became a fashion designer to make clothes for the people, not to be a top couturier in the French tradition.

Technology allows us to do many things, but it is always important to combine it with traditional handcrafts and, in fact, use technology to replicate dying arts so that they are not lost.

By the way, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14.

Clothing has been called intimate architecture. We want to go beyond that.

I never thought fashion was the job for me, because I'm Japanese. Clothes! That was a European, society thing.

I make clothing, and I don't care about trendy things.

Think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.

I suppose there are many, but I cannot imagine ever having a more perfect collaboration than that which Penn-san and I shared. It was based upon mutual trust, respect, and a desire to have our own work pushed to new places. And it always resulted in delight.

When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape - I remember it all.

In fashion, you need to present something new every six months, but it takes time to study things. Development is very important.

You see it in the many bouncing clothes that are not just pleats. To make them, two or three people twist them - twist, twist, twist the pleats, sometimes three or four persons twist together and put it all in the machine to cook it.

Most of us feel some kind of uncertainty, with the population increasing and resources decreasing. We have to face these issues.

The important thing is to make something. In reality, it's not important that a designer be known by name - you can remain anonymous. Even the status of a designer will undergo changes, I believe.

Frank Gehry not only understood my sense of fun and adventure but also reciprocated it and translated that feeling into his work.

I realised I wanted to make clothing which was as universal as jeans and T-shirts.

I always wanted to create clothing that was universal - easy to wear, to care for, and that was also beautiful. As such, I became interested in polyester, and its potential, from the beginning of my career.

I do not create a fashionable aesthetic… I create a style based on life.