Turning the canvas into clothing: ISSEY MIYAKE joins forces with Tomokazu Matsuyama to create wearable art

Key highlights

• ISSEY MIYAKE has teamed up with Tomokazu Matsuyama to launch the new TYPE-XII series, combining A-POC ABLE’s innovative garment-making technology with the artist’s signature works.
• The series includes 7 coats and 7 seamless knit T-shirts. Following a “textile first, garment second” approach, it integrates the artworks directly into the fabric. The coats also feature distinctive raised triangular textures that create different visual effects as the body moves.
• ISSEY MIYAKE GINZA 442 and ISSEY MIYAKE NEW YORK are offering limited-edition versions, including 4 coats in exclusive patterns, along with seamless knit T-shirts featuring 7 works by Tomokazu Matsuyama, available exclusively at the New York store.

ISSEY MIYAKE’s experimental line, A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE, has teamed up with New York-based Japanese contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama on the new “TYPE-XII Tomokazu Matsuyama project,” integrating artistic creations directly into the fabric and garment construction so the works continually take on different forms as the body moves.

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Rethinking the relationship between art and clothing, starting with a piece of fabric

Images from ig / @apocableisseymiyake_official

A-POC is short for “A Piece Of Cloth” and has long been one of ISSEY MIYAKE’s most representative design concepts. The brand believes a garment is more than the result of cutting and sewing: its complete design logic is already embedded in a piece of fabric from the start. This TYPE-XII project continues the brand’s “Textile First” approach, translating Tomokazu Matsuyama’s richly layered, vividly colored artworks directly into textiles before creating garments based on the fabric’s structure. Rather than printing images onto the surface of finished garments afterward, the artwork is part of the textile from the moment it is made, allowing art and clothing to come into being at the same time.

Fabric changes as the body moves

Images from ig / @apocableisseymiyake_official

The series’ defining feature is the fabric’s three-dimensional quality. The coats begin with base fabric printed at a Kyoto workshop with Tomokazu Matsuyama’s works in vivid colors, then receive raised triangular textures through a special process. As the wearer walks, turns, or raises their arms, the fabric’s surface moves with the body, creating shifting light, shadow, and layers of depth that continually change the garment’s appearance.

Seven artworks become fourteen garments, with New York-exclusive versions, too

Images from ig / @apocableisseymiyake_official

This TYPE-XII series includes 7 functional coats and 7 A-POC seamless knit T-shirts, each based on a different artwork by Tomokazu Matsuyama. The coats use the brand’s engineered textile technology to preserve the paintings’ details, while the T-shirts are made with A-POC’s signature seamless knitting technique, bringing together comfort and artistic expression. ISSEY MIYAKE GINZA 442 and ISSEY MIYAKE NEW YORK are also offering 4 coats in limited-edition patterns, while ISSEY MIYAKE NEW YORK exclusively carries seamless knit T-shirts featuring 7 of Matsuyama’s signature works, making them the most collectible limited-edition pieces in the collaboration.

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