HaaT Trick! Issey Miyake Celebrates HAAT's 25th Anniversary

On Friday night, the folks at Tribeca Issey Miyake threw a party in honor of the 25th anniversary of its HaaT line, and we were lucky enough to be invited.

Brilliant red HaaT banners and selections from the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection greeted guests at the entrance to Iseey Miyake's Tribeca store.

If you're a fan of the HaaT line, you know that it owes its astonishing textiles to textile magician Makiko Minagawa, above, HaaT's Creative Director, who has been with Issey Miyake since 1971.

We were also briefly joined by Eishun Yamada, in crinkled black leather, who was president of Issey Miyake USA Corp. for many years.  Mr. Yamada never fails to cut a dashing figure.

One of the perks of working at Issey is getting to wear the new line before anyone else.  The dress on the left can be matched with a very short jacket or a very long one, and all of them have an accordion-like quality built into the stripes.

We found out later when comparing notes, that we were both very drawn to this graphic black and white check dress.

These two HaaT black and white ensembles on silver mannequins were at the back of the first floor space.

A close up of the bodice on the dress above left gives you an idea of the 3-dimenionality of the pieces.

The Japanese are so well known for their elegant wrapping customs that there are multiple books on the subject, the most famous of which might be How to Wrap Five Eggs (1967), followed, due to popular acclaim, by How to Wrap Five More Eggs (1975).  The two extra soft colorful shirts you see below come with their own little bags of the same color and look much like the blue and green balls when packaged.  Perfect for travelers!

Visitors and well wishers were as interesting to view as the new Haat line.  Some dressed in Issey; others dressed in vibrant Issey style. Here, an Issey Miyake bag in a shade of red he has used lovingly for years.

We love to see men who are not afraid of color.  (This gent carries the evening's goodie bag. More about that later.)

This fashion-fearless fellow wore red tails with his jeans.

This woman's featherlight coat has pleats of different size blocks that go in different directions.  When she walked, the hem floated behind her as if lifted by little portable fans!

The HaaT line includes folk-like necklaces made of cloth beads, such as the one this woman is wearing.

The gent at the far left gets the award for Best Gray Hair while the fellow near the center gets the award for Best Hat on a Gent.  (It's a Borsalino.)

It was great fun to run into Jan de Chabert and Reggie Nelson again. We'd originally met both at previous Issey Miyake parties and since then, our paths do cross.

Mary Beth Welch and her friend also attended the event.

Andrew Chen always makes a style statement.  We loved his friend's ethereal black and white dress that looks modern but wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Boardwalk Empire.

Louise Doktor and Tim John are long-time fellow Miyake fans. (Unfortunately, photos of Jean and Tziporah Salamon were all blurry -- an unfortunate occupational hazard of having someone else snap pictures with your iphone.)

Aussies! Stephen Cassidy, Richard Perram and their friend enjoyed the event, and had us laughing nonstop.

We call the next 6 photos "Front to back and back to front": 
Henry Pierre and his ubiquitous red dinosaur made the scene along with two friends. The lady in the middle with the silver hair shows up in the background of the next photo, so you can see her hair and dress from behind.

Photographer David Glackin made the the scene, looking dapper.

Jean posed with these two gents, who looked as good coming as going ...

Check out the round circle shaved out on the skull of the gent on the right! Could this be the birth of a new tonsorial trend? It's sort of the polar opposite of medieval monks' shaving a round space on their pates.

Needless to say, we loved how Alexandra accessorized her black Miyake jacket and skirt with red coral necklaces, vintage bag and leopard shoes. She was at the event with a photographer friend.

Alexandra gave us another most marvelous fashion tip.  Dissatisfied with the way her jacket looked, she simply gathered up the hem and tied it at the back.  In the front, it looks like a bolero; in the back it looks like a bow that hugs her waist.  Brilliant!

Street photographer and blogger Ryo Miyamoto (left) and the Issey store's latest new employee show two different approaches to combining and layering textiles, stripes, prints and plaids.

24 Hour Party People DJ Keiichiro provided amazing background music that set the tone for a wonderfully relaxed, hip evening.

What a dapper trio: Etienne, Ellery & Reggie.

OK, we couldn't resist a shot of Davey Mitchell showing off his Miyake pants and matching skirt that he fashioned into a cape/serape, with obvious dramatic effect.

The goodie bag!  There's that signature shade of red again.  And inside the bag was a soft translucent white bag, 16 inches long, that was folded at the top several times till it was only half that length, and elegantly tied with soft white ribbons.  Nestled inside was a thick pad of square notepaper covered in Indian cotton with a stenciled design and the Haat logo.  Visual dessert at the end of a visual feast!