Costume, A-POC: Queen, ca. 2000

Issey Miyake, one of the leading clothing designers of our time, is known for his innovative fashion design—often combining new and old developments in science and technology to create garments of unpretentious beauty.
A-POC (or, “a piece of cloth”) is a project by Miyake in collaboration with Dai Fujiwara, one of the many talents to emerge from Miyake’s design studio. Together, they have completely rethought the complex manufacturing process of making clothes: from the generation of raw materials and the machines used to the delivery system and the fitting of the wearer. As Miyake explains, “A thread goes into a machine that, in turn, generates completed clothing using the latest computer technology, eliminating the usual needs for cutting and sewing the fabric.”
Ultimately, the A-POC manufacturing process produces a garment à disposition, or uncut, and in this way brings to mind some examples of uncut 18th-century embroidered waistcoats in the museum’s collection. Their uncut state represents the process by which waistcoats were traditionally made: from the tailor to the embroiderers and back to the tailor, who would then fit the coat to the client. A-POC differs only in the reduction of steps as the tailor is both designer and computer, and the final fitting is done by the client upon receipt, at which time the garment can be cut out to suit the client’s preference.

Costume, A-POC: Queen, ca. 2000; Japan; 55% cotton, 43% rayon, 2% polyurathane; Gift of Issey Miyake USA Corp.; 2003-11-1