This Issey Miyake ensemble belonged to Judith Chung, a fashion entrepreneur and journalist. This is one of the designer’s earliest explorations into the pleating techniques which culminated in his most distinctive creation under Pleats Please label. The pleats create volume on the jacket’s high collar, structural shoulders, and back vent that interacts with the wearer’s movements. Issey Miyake together with his team at Miyake Design Studio (est. 1970) combined novel technologies of synthetic textiles and innovative crafts to challenge conventions of clothing the body.Along with the rise of Japanese fashion globally in the 1980s, boutiques in Singapore catering to Japanese designers multiplied. Judith Chung was the owner of the popular boutique Man and His Woman (1972–1993), one of the most significant shops in Orchard Road that carried such Japanese brands. The multi-label store also brought in the most desirable global high fashion labels in the 1970s–80s. Her tastes and shop shaped an entire generation of fashionable people in Singapore and the region.
