Issey Miyake turns pleating paper waste into furniture and sculptures for Milan exhibition

At the ISSEY MIYAKE / MILAN store, the annual experimental program returns with The Paper Log: Shell and Core, a research-driven installation conceived by Satoshi Kondo of Miyake Design Studio in collaboration with Ensamble Studio. Presented during Milan Design Week, the project transforms an overlooked byproduct of the brand’s pleating process into a material inquiry that unfolds between fashion, architecture, and object design.

Since its opening in 2017, the Milan flagship has functioned as a platform for interdisciplinary exploration. This iteration continues that trajectory, questioning how design can extend beyond product into process, and how residual materials might be reinterpreted through new forms of authorship.

At the centre of the project is the Paper Log, a dense cylindrical roll of pleated paper originally used to protect fabric during the pleating process, a defining technology of ISSEY MIYAKE. Measuring approximately 80 centimetres in height and 40 centimetres in diameter, the object recalls the section of a tree trunk, its layered interior echoing growth rings and suggesting a temporal narrative embedded in material.

Satoshi Kondo first identified its potential not as waste, but as latent matter. Early experiments involved cutting the log into sections to form stools, initiating a broader investigation into its structural and tactile properties. Through cutting, peeling, soaking, and compressing, the material revealed a capacity to shift between softness and rigidity, absorption and resistance.

The project expands through a collaboration with Ensamble Studio, the Madrid-based practice led by Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa, known for its material-driven research. Rather than a linear collaboration, the process developed through parallel explorations. Each discipline approached the same material through its own methodology, fashion design and architecture intersecting through experimentation.

For both teams, process becomes the primary driver. Trial, error, and transformation define the work, positioning the project not as a finished object but as an evolving field of inquiry. The result is a shared language where material intelligence, memory, and form operate across scales.

The installation unfolds through two complementary bodies of work. Shell, developed by Ensamble Studio, consists of sculptural objects formed by peeling layers from the Paper Log and reshaping them into delicate compositions. Treated with hardening agents, the paper retains every fold and crease, crystallising what was once ephemeral into a suspended, almost fossilised state.

Core, developed by the ISSEY MIYAKE in-house team, explores the material’s mass and density through functional prototypes. Stools, chairs, and tables emerge through processes of soaking, binding, and coating, testing the limits of durability and use. Together, these two approaches establish a dialogue between lightness and weight, fragility and resistance.

Underlying the project is a conceptual translation from clothing to space. The pleated paper, once a support for garments, becomes a second skin for objects, wrapping, shaping, and redefining their presence. This echoes ISSEY MIYAKE’s long-standing philosophy of “a piece of cloth,” where fabric creates space rather than merely covering the body.

In the hands of Ensamble Studio, this logic extends into architecture. Material is treated as a carrier of memory, retaining traces of pressure, rhythm, and transformation. Through processes of fixation and scale shift, the paper moves beyond its original function, occupying a territory between textile and structure, fashion and built form.

Displayed throughout the store, the installation is accompanied by documentation of its making, revealing the dialogue between the collaborators and the evolution of the material. Rather than presenting a resolved outcome, The Paper Log positions itself as an open-ended investigation, inviting further interpretations across disciplines.

By rethinking a secondary material, the project proposes a broader reflection on value, continuity, and reuse. It suggests that innovation does not always begin with new resources, but with a renewed attention to what already exists, and to what it might still become.

Project Credit

Brand: Issey Miyake | @isseymiyakeofficial
Project name: The Paper Log – Shell and Core
Designed by Miyake Design Studio
Collaborator: Ensamble Studio | @anton_ensamble and @debora_ensamble
Period: April 21 – May 5, 2026
Location: ISSEY MIYAKE / MILAN, Via Bagutta 12 Milano
Photo: Making Process by Miyake Design Studio & Ensamble Studio
Installation images by Melania Dalle Grave, Michela Pedranti, DSL Studio