Issey Miyake Sleek Pleats Dress

Most pleating is matte, because folding a surface scatters light. Sleek Pleats is the exception: the double-pleating process here has been worked to produce a satin sheen and a hand close to silk, so the cloth catches light along the pleat lines rather than diffusing it. That changes the whole character of the garment. It contours and drapes instead of standing off, and the pleats register as a fluid, shifting gloss rather than as texture. Cut slim, with asymmetrical sleeves and folded fabric details across the back, it is one of the few pleated pieces built to follow the body closely, and the asymmetry keeps the sheen from resolving into anything as simple as a stripe.

A pleated dress that drapes and shines rather than standing away is a genuinely different proposition, and the asymmetric sleeve and the back detail are what keep it from being merely sleek.

The precision of the pleating is the Issey Miyake signature, and here it has been pushed toward fluidity rather than structure.

100% polyester, made in Japan, in black. Double pleated to a satin sheen with a silk-like hand. Slim fit, asymmetrical sleeves, and folded fabric detail across the back.

Slim, and designed to contour with graceful draping, so this is the pleated piece that sits closest to the body. The asymmetrical sleeves mean the two sides are deliberately unequal. As with all pleated cloth, it opens in wearing, but this one starts from a much closer cut.

It is complete on its own. The back detail is a reason not to cover it. A plain hard shoe and no competing texture is the right treatment.

The pleats are heat-set into the polyester and 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.

The Sleek Pleats Shirt is the same treatment in a shirt. The Hatching Pleats Dress takes double pleating toward matte texture instead of sheen. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.