Issey Miyake: the Dream Weaver

Issey Miyake the Dream Weaver
Issey Miyake takes the concept of "cutting-edge design" literally.

The Japanese fashion designer's latest innovations, to debut in fall, 2006, promise to slice across design-world boundaries and into two new markets: home furnishings and jeans.

His new experiments build on the groundbreaking computer-driven manufacturing process he first developed, with design engineer Dai Fujiwara, nearly 10 years ago.

n 1997, the duo invented a means of knitting or weaving entire pieces of clothing - no sewing needed.

Thread goes into the loom, and tops, skirts, and pants come out.

To be specific, a wide-flattened tube of cloth emerged, with embedded "seams" that looked like a faint outline.

Each piece of clothing could be cut out of the swath of fabric, as you might separate a paper doll's dress from the page along the perforated line.

Because the process produced material that wouldn't fray, wearers could then customize the clothes as they saw fit.

Miyake calls the ever-evolving process, and the line of avant-garde clothing made with it, A-POC.

It's an acronym for "a piece of cloth."