Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1938 — he was seven years old when the atomic bomb was dropped, an experience that profoundly shaped his life philosophy of creating positive things from destruction. He studied graphic design in Tokyo before moving to Paris in 1965 to train with Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy, then to New York to work with Geoffrey Beene. He launched his own label in 1970 in Tokyo, pioneering a philosophy of clothing as a second skin — technical fabrics, pleated constructions, and garments that moved with the body in ways Western fashion had never explored. Miyake passed away in August 2022 at the age of 84; the house continues under his creative legacy. His fragrance programme, launched in partnership with Beauté Prestige International (a Shiseido subsidiary), has produced several of the most original compositions in mass-market perfumery.

L'Eau d'Issey (1992) was created by Jacques Cavallier (now Louis Vuitton's master perfumer) and Dominique Ropion — the most technically ambitious perfumer of his generation. Their brief was extraordinary: 'create the smell of water itself.' The result — using a structure of transparent lotus, lily, rose, cyclamen, osmanthus, peony, and aquatic notes over fresh wood — created an entirely new olfactive category that perfumers now call 'transparent floral.' It used hedione and calone to achieve transparency that had never been commercially explored at scale. L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme (1994) — also by Ropion — used marine accord, yuzu, ginger, tobacco, and wood to achieve a parallel masculine transparency.

Three compositions represent the house's creative range. L'Eau d'Issey Florale (2011) extends the original with a sun-warmed, more botanical interpretation. A Scent by Issey Miyake (2009) — a green botanical of citrus, violet leaf, galangal, and cedar — is the house's most demanding and nuanced feminine, beloved by fragrance connoisseurs for its intellectual precision. Nuit d'Issey (2014), a masculine of bergamot, labdanum, leather, amber, and woody musks, demonstrated the house's ability to create rich, confident compositions beyond the transparent signature. Fusion d'Issey (2021), with its abstract citrus-mineral character, continued Miyake's experiment in translating Japanese aesthetics into Western fine fragrance.

Issey Miyake sits in accessible luxury — EDTs from €50-€80 — consistently underpriced for the compositional quality delivered. L'Eau d'Issey represents a genuine masterwork of late-twentieth century perfumery available at a price point that should be twice as high.

Every Issey Miyake fragrance at The Scent Stories® is 100% authentic, factory-sealed and brand-packaged — sourced from authorised channels and shipped worldwide.