Issey Miyake is a fashion designer who started his own studio, the Miyake Design Studio, in Tokyo in 1970. He was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan and was sadly a witness to the nuclear bomb when he was just seven years old.
After spending some time in Paris and New York, he returned to Tokyo to start the above mentioned design studio. The various countries he has lived in have given him the perfect foundation from which to create designs that are a blend of cultures and influences.
However, it wasn’t until 1992 that Miyake launched his first perfume. The original L’eau D’issey translates to ‘Issey’s water’ and water is the central theme to the fragrance. He kept in mind that water is the source of life, so created a perfume that captured the scent of water.
The scent itself uses notes only of white flowers such as carnation, freesia, cyclamen, fresh peonies and white lily. These combine to give this fragrance an unmistakably pure and fresh scent.
The bottle is a design within itself, created to look like the moon sitting just above the Eiffel Tower. This theme is only made all the more romantic when you learn it was inspired by the view Miyake had from his apartment in Paris.
L’eau D’issey was the first of many fragrance created by Miyake. There have been limited edition versions of L’eau D’issey that were created for the different seasons of the year, but there have also been other scents that have become part of the regular Issey Miyake portfolio. There is quite a strong male offering including the men’s version of L’eau D’issey, which was created two years after the original.
Each new fragrance has been created with a specific inspiration in mind. While L’eau D’issey centred around water, one of his more recent additions was centred around air. Launched in 2009, a scent by Issey Miyake was created because Miyake wanted to make a perfume that was as simple and beautiful as the air we breathe. This scent is Miyake’s interpretation of what a fragrance should be, ‘air that smells good’.
There is also Le Feu D’issey Light, which is crafted after – not surprisingly – light. The bottle is a beautiful spherical design that is full of light, life and movement.
And then there is L’Eau d’Issey Florale, which was created using the inspiration of the miracle of a rosebud unfurling. The rosebud is a nod to translucent beauty, simplicity and femininity. It also uses notes of lily and white wood. While the original L’eau D’issey was said to be the scent of water on a woman’s skin, the new floral scent is the ‘caress of a flower on a woman’s skin.’
Whatever your personal choice within the Miyake range, you can be assured the fragrance has been crafted with gorgeous inspiration and designed from the heart by Issey Miyake.
Heidi Bolton - Heidi has worked in the Advertising Media industry for the past ten years in Australia, Singapore and the UK. She has worked across a wide ...
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