Fashion & Style Issey Miyake and me In the depths of apartheid South Africa, the Japanese designer offered me a pass into another, extraordinary world – all thanks to a Vogue sewing pattern.

Miyake, who had liver cancer, died Aug. 5 in Tokyo at the age of 84. His death was announced on Aug. 9 by the Miyake Design Studio, the trailblazing creative hub he founded in 1970.