At Paris Fashion Week, Issey Miyake turns quiet control into a statement

PARIS (AP) — Issey Miyake brought a monastic calm to Paris on Thursday, staging its IM Men show inside the medieval Collège des Bernardins and sending out sweeping, robe-like silhouettes that matched the venue’s stillness.

Stone vaulting and filtered light gave the fall 2026 runway a spiritual, almost devotional mood.

The clothes echoed that atmosphere with long lines, wrapped fronts and drape that suggested religious garb — without tipping into costume. It was one of the season’s standouts, and among IM Men’s most assured runway showings.

The point, as the brand put it, was “formless form” that takes an everyday impulse — a desire to “straighten up,” to feel “proper” — and expresses it through cloth. In practice, the collection delivered that idea with restraint. It wasn’t a show built on noise but on posture.

Founded in Tokyo in 1970 by the late Japanese designer icon Issey Miyake, the house built its reputation on the idea that clothing begins with the material itself — often described in Miyake’s orbit as “a piece of cloth” — then is engineered through pleating, folding and fabric innovation into garments that move with the body and blur the line between fashion, design and technology.

Monastic calm

IM Men’s best work has always lived in a tension: softness held in check by structure. This season, that balance looked settled.

Several looks moved with fluid drape, then resolved into sculptural shape — clothes that seemed to shift from flat to three-dimensional as the wearer walked.

A key textile leaned into that effect, using a fabric construction designed to create raised, sculptural silhouettes while still allowing stretch and comfort.

The result was shape without harshness; color came as atmosphere, not decoration.

One sequence used gradations meant to evoke the “seams of the day” between dusk and dawn — a moment where fashion truly fused with poetry.

One cloth, many lives

Versatility was delivered in the Miyake language of folding, releasing and re-wearing. Coats shifted character with small changes: a panel crossed like a stole, a cuff undone so volume fell looser, a shoulder detail lifted to alter proportion.

Elements that usually look like add-ons — flaps and guards — read as one continuous piece of cloth, and the garment could be worn in multiple ways.

IM Men has the technical range to do almost anything, and in the past that ability has sometimes made the clothes feel overly complicated. This season, the line showed discipline: fewer flourishes, clearer silhouettes, and a steadier calm.

In a week crowded with louder sets and harder “moments,” Issey Miyake won by lowering the volume — and making the case through fabric, cut and the way the clothes moved.