Usually when a designer launches a blockbuster scent, the pressure from retailers and licensers to launch a multitude of follow-ups is intense. This leads to what feels like a conveyer belt of designer fragrances, some good, some mostly forgettable. Not so with Issey Miyake: The designer launched his iconic L'Eau D'Issey in 1992, with ancillary scents in 1998 and 2010. This month, 20 years after the launch of that original fragrance, comes the designer's first completely new scent, Pleats Please.
Named after his revolutionary Pleats Please clothing line — inspired by costumes he designed for the Frankfurt Ballet in 1993, the clothes are meant to have fluidity, but also be effortless to wear and easy to maintain — the scent features notes of nashi (a hybrid fruit of pear and apple), peony, sweet pea, indole, cedar, patchouli, and vanilla. The architectural flaçon is meant to mimic the famous Bao Bao bag, with uneven ridges and a mix of concave and convex panels. The pleated floral calyx cap represents the flower element of the fragrance, as well as the Please Please fabric.
The scent retails for $66 and will be available exclusively at Nordstrom, beginning December 26. We think you guys have waited long enough for a new Issey Miyake scent, so we teamed up with the designer to offer a sweet giveaway to celebrate the launch. We've got a bottle of Pleats Please, an iconic Issey Miyake Bao Bao Bilbao handbag, and a copy of the gorgeous Taschen coffee table book of the Pleats Please collection to give away to one lucky reader. Happy holidays to you.
To enter to win, like us on Facebook, then tell us in the comments below what your most fashionably effortless piece of clothing is, and why you love it. The winner will be chosen on December 26 and notified via email. Good luck!