Issey Miyake Square Crumpled Purse – Pink

Organza is the stiffest of the sheer cloths, and the reason is in the yarn: filament spun with a very high twist, set in a tight plain weave, and finished so the cloth holds itself open rather than falling shut. That is what produces a fabric you can see through and that still stands up. It is ordinarily used for a sleeve, a collar, or the underskirt of something else. Using it for a bag is a different proposition, because a bag has to hold its form when it is empty and take a load when it is not, and almost every bag answers that with a stiffened base or an interlining. This one has neither, so the cloth is doing the structural work and there is nothing behind it to hide anything. That is also what makes the embroidery a construction rather than a surface: on an opaque ground stitching has a front and a back and only the front is a design, and on a sheer both faces read at once.

Why we selected it

A transparent bag is an unusual thing to want and a good thing to own once, because it makes the contents part of the object. We took this one because the structure comes from the cloth rather than from anything hidden inside it, which is the argument this house has been making in clothing for decades and makes far less often in something that is not a garment.

Structure that lives in the material rather than in the construction is the through-line of Issey Miyake‘s work, and it is unusual to find it stated this plainly outside the clothes.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent polyester, in an organza. Made in Japan, in pale pink. Embroidered, with a magnetic closure and logo-engraved hardware.

Sizing and dimensions

We do not hold dimensions for this bag and would rather say so than estimate them. It is a purse rather than a day bag, an object for the things that would otherwise go in a pocket. A sheer cloth also sets its own limit, since whatever is carried is visible, and in practice that governs what goes in more than capacity does. We will measure it for you if you call.

Styling

Against something plain, since a transparent object with stitching on it is already the detail. Pale pink is a warm colour and sits more easily against black, charcoal, or ivory than against another pale shade. It reads as an evening object more than a daytime one, though nothing about it insists on that.

Care

We hold no care instruction from the maker for this one, and an embroidered sheer is not a thing to work out at home, so a specialist is the honest answer rather than a method. What can be said with confidence is the fibre. Polyester is durable and entirely intolerant of heat, and heat is the specific risk here rather than a general one: the crispness that lets this cloth hold a shape comes from the twist and the finish, and a hot iron or a radiator takes both out permanently. Keep it away from heat and out of direct sun, store it lightly stuffed so the sides do not learn a crease, and do not work at a mark yourself, since anything done to a sheer shows from both faces at once. Our fabric care guide covers polyester and technical cloth in detail.

Related pieces

The Campagne Pant and the Fit Pants work the same idea of structure living in the cloth in a garment. The Rustic Silk Skirt is cut for the way its cloth behaves. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.