Issey Miyake Looks to Origami for Sustainable Design Solutions

Issey Miyake's 2007 pleated staircase design (image via Wired)

The sustainable style buzz at Paris Fashion Week (which actually started well before PFW) is definitely 132.5, Issey Mikyake's new origami-inspired fashion collection. Created as one of Miyake's uber-geeky Reality Lab initiatives, this latest enterprise looks to the ancient craft of paper folding to find more efficient and sustainable ways of constructing garments from a single piece of flat cloth.

image courtesy of WWD/Issey Miyake

Based on the mathematical experiments of Japanese academic, Jun Mitani and his computer-generated work to create complex 3D forms from a single piece of flat paper, 132.5 pieces will similarly be created from eco-textiles (made from recycled plastic bottles) and doubly efficient in their waste-reduction properties and 2D packability.

prototype models (image via Issey Miyake)

For more details on 132.5 Issey Miyake, read this interview in The Telegraph and this informative product overview on Design Observer. Impressive news that pieces in this collection will retail for under $300 dollars. Seems like the perfect art + fashion + environment investment.