Issey Miyake Rustic Silk Shirt

Most silk garments are made to pour. This one is made to stand. “Rustic” in the name is doing real work: the silk here has been finished to a dry, slightly coarse hand, so it holds an edge and keeps a shape away from the body instead of tracing it. Cut sleeveless and cut wide, it behaves more like paper than like a blouse, which is exactly the effect. Ivory is the right colour for it, because an undyed-looking pale is what lets you read the surface texture and the shadow in a fold. It is a sculptural garment that happens to be made of the most fluid fibre there is, and the tension between those two facts is the whole piece.

Why we selected it

Silk with body rather than drape is genuinely uncommon, and it makes a sleeveless top do something a sleeveless top usually cannot.

Treating a familiar material until it behaves unfamiliarly is the oldest habit in Issey Miyake‘s studio, and here it is applied to silk.

Materials and construction

100% silk, made in Japan, in ivory. The finish is dry and textured rather than smooth, which is what gives the garment its structure.

Fit notes

Sleeveless, and cut to stand away from the body rather than follow it. Sculptural rather than fitted, so read it as a shape rather than a size. The armhole and shoulder line carry the whole silhouette, so it wants to be worn without much on top of it.

Styling

It was made alongside the Rustic Silk Skirt and the two together read as a single sculpted column, which is the most complete way to wear it. On its own, put it over something narrow and let the volume sit where it wants.

Care

Silk at this weight and with this finish is worth handling gently and keeping away from direct heat, which can flatten the texture that gives the garment its shape. Our fabric care guide has a section on silk.

Related pieces

The Rustic Silk Skirt is the matched half. The Two as One Shirt is another sleeveless top built out of an unexpected material. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.