ISSEY MIYAKE

ISSEY MIYAKE

Issey Miyake's pleated fabrics are a wonder to perceive and I suspect were created from some of the technology developed by Mariano Fortuny the Spanish artist from Granada who moved with his family on the  death of his father to Paris and then on to Venice - Italy where he lived and work both as an artist but also as a creator of very advanced methods of permanently pleating silks and also the delightful fabric known as 'devore' velvet which is also known as 'burnt out'.

The velvet was stretched out on a screen print table where a negative/positive screen was a applied to a particular design and then an acidy gel was printed through the screen that 'burnt out' the main body of the velvet to the desired designs

Of interest when working with the Welsh Development Agency in Treforest just outside Cardiff - Wales I was asked to help one of their emerging stars dress designers that of Patricia Lester. As time went on I got to know her husband Charles who was a chemical engineer and lo and behold he suddenly made "a discovery" of both the pleated silks and devore velvets  - "I don't think so this technology had been developed and used in the 1920's by Fortuny".

All that said Patricia had great success selling her garments to opera stars and celebrities and had a presence in Libertys of London -Regent Street,she along the way gaining an MBE.

Because Charles felt that his technology (?) was part of Patricia's offer they changed their brand name from Patricia Lester to CHARLES AND PATRICIA LESTER

All images used on the Leslie Creasey Blog are from my hand clipped archive documenting 35 years of Style and Design media.  For all enquiries please contact leslie@charismatic-brands.com.