ISSEY MIYAKE | PLEATS PLEASE FLOWERS SERIES POSTERS | 2015
They look like flowers, but they're actually nothing but fabric / ISSEY MIYAKE "PLEATS PLEASE FLOWERS"
Camellias, tulips, roses — every single petal is actually pleated fabric. The designer flatly says it's not about logic, it's about what you feel the instant you see it, and that bluntness is kind of amazing.
The problem
PLEATS PLEASE is Issey Miyake's pleated fabric series that launched in 1993. Taku Satoh has been handling the visuals since 2005, and the year before this campaign he had been running a "looks delicious" line, making the fabric resemble food.
The insight
Taku Satoh saw the PLEATS PLEASE material itself as having infinite possibilities, like paint or clay. What's interesting is that after food, he chose flowers next — not because it's "cute" or "will sell," but because he's using the ad as a place to test the expressive power of the material itself.
The idea
Camellia, plum blossom, tulip, rose, poppy, sweet pea. The fabric is folded, layered, and shaped into three dimensions to form each flower, one by one. There's no explanation of the clothes' function or how they'd look worn — just the boldness of showing fabric that simply looks like flowers.
What happened
The campaign won Gold at Cannes Lions 2015. It was rolled out to coincide with the opening of a new store at Narita Airport Terminal 2.
Afterthought
It's an ad for clothing, yet no one is wearing anything. And still, it works purely on the strength of the fabric's texture and color. That's the brand's real power — an ad confident enough to say "no explanation needed" is a rare thing.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2015
