Fashion brand Homme Plissé Issey Miyake has created a capsule collection for London's Tate Modern art gallery, which was informed by Henri Matisse's artwork The Snail and revealed as part of a dance performance.
The Japanese brand showed the collection in one of its Open Studio events, a global initiative by Issey Miyake to present its clothes in places where they haven't been seen before.
The Tate performance was its second edition and saw Homme Plissé Issey Miyake present a capsule collection informed by one of the gallery's artworks, The Snail by Henry Matisse.
The collage of vibrant, colourful pieces of paper formed the base of the clothing line, which was unveiled in a performance by the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company last week on a set by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck.
Located in Tate Modern's The Tanks – its permanent galleries for live art – the performance saw dancers move over a felt-covered floor, with benches and seats arranged around the circular concrete walls of the room.
As part of the performance, they lifted cut-outs from the floor to reveal the colourful garments in the brand's signature pleated designs, which they then wore as they continued to dance.
For the final part of the performance, the dancers lifted a large section of the floor to reveal a fabric version of The Snail artwork underneath, while wearing designs from the capsule collection decorated with the collage.
The brand chose London for the second Open Studio edition as it felt that Tate's work with designers made it a suitable partner.
"We decided to do the second edition of Open Studio in London because, through a common referral, we got a proposal from Tate," Satoshi Kondo, a member of the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake design team, told Dezeen.
"Being aware of Tate's engagement in working with designers to design something based on their permanent collection, we found a synergy between the offer and what Open Studio is."
Kondo, who is also the artistic director of the Issey Miyake mainline, said he is a big fan of Tate Modern and always visits it when he is in London.
"What Tate represents is this approach that art is open to everyone, so it's accessible to any person," Kondo said.
"Part of the Tate's permanent collection is open to the public for free, so whenever you come in, there are people making drawings and families spending time here."
This ethos ties in with what Issey Miyake wants to do with its Open Studio events, Kondo explained.
"The environment and the institution itself is quite liberal and open to the public, and that also really speaks to the intention of Open Studio – it's to open up and to really share with the local communities, in this case London, how we design and how we make clothing," he concluded.
The capsule collection will be on sale at Tate Modern before becoming globally available early next year.
Issey Miyake also recently unveiled its new flagship store in New York, designed by SO-IL, and showcased handcrafted paper furniture during this year's Milan design week.
The photography is courtesy of Issey Miyake Inc.