In 1970, Japanese designer Issey Miyake opened Miyake Design Studio, designing couture and prêt-á-porter for women. By the early 1980s, he was enacting extensive experiments on fabrics, using heat and pressure to alter the structure of the threads. These interventions into the behaviors of traditional fabrics like silk, wool, and cotton jersey eventually led to Miyake’s famous body of work known as Pleats Please. These garments were cut, sewn, folded, and placed between protective paper sheeting before being subjected to a heat treatment that transformed the folds into permanent pleats. As in his Pleats Please designs, Miyake focused on folds for his collaboration with renowned Italian lighting design house Artemide. Known as IN-EI, Miyake’s series of floor, ceiling, and pendant lamps are complex volumes made out of a material derived from recycled PET plastic bottles. The folds are engineered in such a way that no internal frame is required for their structure, and the lamps can be folded down for storage and then expanded again for use. Named after the Japanese word for “shadow” or “nuance”, the IN-EI series of lamps cast a beautiful glow from their eloquently sculptural forms. IN-EI lamps are only available in Los Angeles at ALTAI.
