This Is How Issey Miyake Does Dress Shoes
The Homme Plissé Issey Miyake Cioccolato, a new shoe by an Issey Miyake line best-known for its pleated garments, is so devoid of decorative elements that even laces look like an obtrusion.
Atop a heeled sole unit, a single piece of densely woven fabric forms the majority of the Cioccolato shoe’s upper, from the squared-off toe box to a panel that shrouds the laces.
Homme Plissé doesn’t let shoelaces and eyelets interrupt the shoe’s clean lines, instead relegating them to where they can’t be seen. The Japanese label does allow one single eyelet on the outside of the shoe’s vamp, though, making for easy lacing.
In that sense, it’s similar to YMC’s perpetually sold-out Grenson collaboration, which is now onto its third round of streamlined oxford shoes with obscured laces. Or Parisian shoemaker Jacques Solovière’s Matt New shoe, which reduces laces down to their bare minimum through a single eyelet.
However, those are two rare examples of dress shoes reaching this level of sleekness, and they’re both by established shoemakers. Homme Plissé, on the other hand, is no shoemaker.
The brand’s website currently lists no shoes, although that’ll be changing when the Cioccolato releasing on March 1. It’s a shame that the line almost exclusively focuses on sculptural silhouettes built from its trademarked polyester pleating technique, because Homme Plissé’s occasional dabbling with footwear is equally impressive.
Last year's asymmetric breeze sneaker was an inventively warped running shoe that similarly hid its laces for a cleaner final look, and before that, its “Overgrown” sneaker artfully combined organic plant shapes onto a futuristic sock-like design. The Cioccolato, which Homme Plissé designed to mirror the shape of a chocolate bar, shows that same level of creativity but in a more dressy form.
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