Issey Miyake Pleats Please Monthy Colors: January Dress

A funnel collar stands up on its own and encircles the neck without folding over, and buttoning it closed turns the top of the dress into a clean vertical cylinder. On a pleated garment that is a striking thing to do, because the collar has to hold a rigid cylindrical shape out of a cloth whose entire character is softness and give. The rest of the dress is deliberately plain: a midi length, long sleeves, and nothing else. All of the formality lives in that collar, which is why the same dress reads quite differently unbuttoned. January in the Monthly Colors sequence, and a correspondingly serious garment for the coldest month.

A funnel collar built out of pleated cloth is a difficult thing to hold, and it is the one detail that gives an otherwise plain dress its whole character.

The Monthly Colors series runs a colour through the line month by month, and the winter entries are consistently the most covered and the most formal.

100% polyester, made in Japan. Pleated, with long sleeves, a midi length, and a funnelled buttoned collar.

Midi length with long sleeves. The collar stands at the neck when fastened and opens out when not, which changes the whole read of the dress. Pleated cloth opens in wearing.

Buttoned to the throat it is formal and severe and needs nothing added. Open it is softer and takes a necklace or a scarf. Worth treating as two dresses.

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 Monthly Colors August Dress is the summer counterpart. The Monthly Colors July Shirt and the May Shirt are the shirts from the same series. There is more on the house on the Issey Miyake designer page. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.