Issey Miyake is revisiting one of the house’s most enduring creative investigations with “URUSHI BODY: Between Body and Matter,” a special exhibition opening September 1 across its Ginza, Semba and Kyoto spaces in Japan.
The exhibition focuses on URUSHI BODY, one of the defining series from the ISSEY MIYAKE Autumn Winter 2026/27 collection, Creating, Allowing. At its core is an unusual meeting of traditional Japanese craft and contemporary technology, transforming handmade washi paper and lacquer into sculptural forms designed to frame the human body.
The pieces begin in Japan’s Echizen region of Fukui Prefecture, where craftspeople hand-tear large sheets of handmade washi and layer them with adhesive over 3D-printed molds. The forms then travel to Kyoto, where artisans apply multiple layers of lacquer, transforming the paper into a rigid yet subtly flexible material with a deep, polished sheen. The resulting bustiers and corset-like waist pieces are available in dark red, black, dark blue and white.
The process is a contemporary continuation of a much older Issey Miyake fascination however. In the 1980s, Miyake developed BODYWORKS, a series of experiments that explored the human form by moulding unconventional materials including plastic, paper and wire around the torso. Rather than simply dressing the body, the work used material to define, conceal and ultimately make the physical form more visible.
URUSHI BODY carries that investigation forward. Inspired by both the obi, the traditional kimono sash, and the bustier, its sculptural silhouette creates a shell around the torso, tracing the body’s curves while establishing a tension between softness and rigidity, craft and technology, body and matter.
The exhibition also makes the process itself part of the experience. At ISSEY MIYAKE GINZA, visitors will encounter a video installation featuring a dancer framed by URUSHI BODY, alongside a documentary following the pieces through the ateliers in Fukui and Kyoto and the tools used in their creation. Semba will present a video and image installation, while the Kyoto exhibition will focus on the documentary and craft tools.
Running from September 1 through September 27 at ISSEY MIYAKE GINZA and ISSEY MIYAKE KYOTO, and through September 25 at ISSEY MIYAKE SEMBA, the exhibition offers a closer look at the thinking behind one of the collection’s most materially intriguing pieces.