Issey Miyake Homme Plissé Compleat Trousers

The centre seam is what distinguishes this from every other trouser in the line. Most pleated trousers rely on the pleating alone to give the leg direction; this one adds an actual seam running down the front, which produces a hard, continuous line that the softer pleating gathers around. On a slim shape that line does a great deal of work, because it keeps a narrow leg from reading as merely tight and gives it a drawn edge instead. The waist is unusually well equipped: elastic, plus a drawstring, plus belt loops. That is three separate means of holding a waistband on a garment that has to survive a heat press, and each of them has to be constructed so the pleating runs cleanly past it.

The centre seam gives a slim pleated trouser a definition that pleating alone cannot, and the waist gives you three ways to wear it.

Adding conventional trouser construction to an unconventional process is the sort of quiet problem-solving Issey Miyake's studio does well.

100% polyester, made in the Philippines, in black. Vertical pleats with a centre seam detail, slim shape, elastic waist with a drawstring and belt loops.

Slim through the leg, with the centre seam holding the front line. The elastic and drawstring mean it can be worn without a belt; the loops mean it does not have to be. Pleated cloth opens in wearing.

The slim leg and centre seam read as sharp, so it takes a more structured top half than most of the line. Belted, it is close to a formal trouser.

The pleats are heat-set into the polyester and are permanent, so it washes without losing them. Wash at 30°C or below in a laundry net on a short cycle, or press gently by hand, and never tumble dry, iron, steam, or dry clean. Store it rolled along the direction of the pleats. Our fabric care guide covers polyester and technical cloth.

The Basics Trousers and the Heather Pleats Pants are softer cuts in the same cloth, and the Basics Jacket is the top half. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.