TYPE-Ⅰ MM project

“A Single Chord, a Single Thread”

The sound of a jacquard loom’s needle moving. The warbling of a bird. Anacrusis. The conductor waves a baton and the sound of a beautiful waltz begins to play.
The string players gather by conductor Michiyoshi Inoue to perform
“Waltz (from Face of Another)” from “Three Film Scores” by Toru Takemitsu.
A natural texture and rustic scenery overlap with a slow triple time and gentle melody,
eventually connecting rice stalks to rice husks and charcoal to black thread.

Intermission.

Beginning with wooden clappers and a flute from a traditional Japanese musical performance, Mr. Inoue conducts the orchestra as if dancing with his entire body and the orchestra’s breathing becomes one.
What overlaps with the celebratory music of “Fête,” the second movement from Akira Ifukube’s “Japanese Rhapsody,” is the process of clothes-making, which begins with fabric.
Many people’s hands move to shape the form and adjust the fit.
Then on to the gripping finale.

This is how life breathed into the project between conductor Michiyoshi Inoue and A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE,
where even greater questions were posed. For example, how should a classic style be passed down?
How free can a uniform be?
The balance between beauty and comfort.
What is certain is that just as an ensemble starts from the quivering of a single chord,
a garment is born from a single thread.
Clothing is made in just the same way as a conductor and an orchestra make beautiful music.

A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE introduces the “TYPE-I MM project,” which is a collaboration with conductor Michiyoshi Inoue. TYPE-I is a project that creates clothes with Triporous™, a material developed by Sony Group using rice husks as a raw material, mixed into the thread. Through this project, we have reached a new potential for a special kind of black that is not achievable through conventional dyeing techniques.

For the TYPE-I MM project, we have also further expanded the potential of Triporous™ through this endeavor with Mr. Inoue, who has flourished for many years on the world stage. What garment is both as exquisite as formal wear and also embodies the fun of wearing it, while enveloping the physique of a conductor or performer in comfort? What should a garment do to continue updating itself, just as classical music updates itself through repeat performances? This is an attempt to bring together a performance by a new ensemble of clothing, music, and people. The special black fabric with Triporous™ mixed into it was made to have further freedom in movement and an even lighter feel by adding pleats through the Steam Stretch technique. The many variations of the monochromatic stripes come together to resemble a musical score in the stand collar jacket, pants, and dress styles.

The TYPE-I MM project is a collection that is accompanied by music. The documentary footage that follows the process of this project was shot and edited by film director, Yu Yamanaka. The music performed by the 65-member orchestra assembled under the direction of Mr.Inoue reverberates around the space. The music is Toru Takemitsu's “Waltz (from Face of Another)” from “Three Film Scores” and Akira Ifukube's second movement: “Fête” from “Japanese Rhapsody.” The baton moves through the air, the chords are plucked, air blows through the reeds, and the mallet jumps. Each of these movements resemble a dialogue with a new garment. And the overlapping water, fields, rice husks, loom, needle, and movements of people's hands are woven into the beautiful refrain and harmony.

Clothes-making itself is also an ensemble of nature, technology, and people. And it comes to fruition as “a piece of cloth” at A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE. The TYPE-I MM project is a collection that sheds new light on clothes-making from the richly productive relationship between music and people.

Michiyoshi Inoue
Born in Tokyo in 1946, Michiyoshi Inoue studied at Toho Gakuen School of Music under the late Hideo Saito. In 2007, he achieved great success in Tokyo both as the conductor and project leader of his Shostakovich symphony cycle concert series with five Russian and Japanese orchestras. Inoue has been the uncompromising general director of unique, unconventional stage projects such as the new productions of Mozart “Le Nozze di Figaro: What The Gardener Saw”, staged by Hideki Noda (2015), as well as the world premiere of Inoue’s autobiographical musical opera “A Way from Surrender”, staged by himself (2023). Inoue has been awarded the Arima Prize from the NHK Symphony Orchestra (2019) as well as the 54th Suntory Music Award (2023). Currently the Honorary Conductor of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Inoue has announced his plan to retire as conductor in December 2024.