Issey Miyake Hatching Bottoms

The hatching family is at its most surprising on a trouser, because a trouser is where you least expect a surface to shift. Double pleating crossed in two directions makes the cloth read tonally rather than flatly, and on a pale colour that is far more visible than it is on black. Lilac is an unusual choice and a deliberate one: it is light enough that the crossed pleats produce genuine variation in the way the colour reads down the leg, so the trouser appears to have depth without having a pattern. Cut straight through the leg on an elastic waist, the garment itself is completely plain. Everything interesting about it is in the cloth.

Why we selected it

A pale trouser with tonal depth built into the weave rather than printed on it is a much more wearable thing than it sounds, and the straight leg keeps it from becoming a costume.

Signature double pleating from Issey Miyake, applied where it is least expected.

Materials and construction

100% polyester, made in Japan, in lilac. Double pleated, with an elastic waist and a straight leg.

Fit notes

Straight leg with an elastic waist, so it sits where you put it. Pleated cloth opens out in wearing and carries more material than the flat garment suggests, so expect a little more room than it first appears to have.

Styling

Lilac is easier than it sounds against cream, grey, and black, and harder against anything warm. Keep the top half plain and let the tonal shift in the leg be the interesting part.

Care

The pleats are heat-set into the polyester and are permanent, so it washes without losing them. Miyake’s own instruction is to wash at 30°C or below in a laundry net on a short cycle, or press gently by hand, and never to tumble dry, iron, steam, or dry clean, since the pleats are not heat-resistant. Store it rolled along the direction of the pleats. Our fabric care guide covers polyester and technical cloth.

Related pieces

The Hatching Pleats Skirt, the Hatching Pleats 2 Dress, and the Hatching Pleats Jacket are the skirt, the dress, and the jacket worked the same way. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.