Issey Miyake is almost as famous for his fragrance as he is his fashions, with both L’Eau d’Issey and L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme comfortably holding the prestigious title of ‘modern classics’. With perfume, Issey’s style is that of clean maximalism, where transparent fragrances are given blinding strength and tenacious simplicity.

The brand’s latest offering is ‘Pleats Please’ – a fragrance that has been designed as an “ode to timeless, fluid fashion” and plays homage to Issey’s signature look – pleats. Created by über talented perfumer Aurélien Guichard (Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Mâle Terrible, Versace’s Eros and all of the re-launched and new Robert Piguet scents) Pleats Please serves as a break from tradition from the brand by being a modern fruity floral.

It can’t be easy being a fruity floral perfume in 2013, with so many similar fragrances on the market in a genre which could easily be considered as over-done, it’s almost impossible to be noticed above the syrupy sweet din.

The Issey Miyake brand is one to always innovate and with Pleats Please it presents a fruity floral fragrance with no pretence – a perfume that has learned the art of subtlety – and in a world of violent pink mist it may have just hit the nail on the head.

The Notes

Top: Nashi

Heart: Peony, Sweet Pea and Indole

Base: Cedar, Patchouli, Vanilla and Musk

How Does it Smell?

Pleats Please is vibrant and effervescent right from the word go, with top notes of crisp, dewy pear (‘nashi’ is Asian Pear) and an assortment of glassy pink berries. Unlike many fruity fragrances, Pleats Please has the right balance of sugar and doesn’t feel too thick – it’s not going to be giving anyone toothache.

As far as fruity florals go, Pleats Please certainly places its emphasis on the fruits rather than the flowers, with the heart of the fragrance playing out delicate wisps of pastel pink roses and peonies.

Despite the presence of indole in the notes (indole is the funky, animalic smell found in many white flowers such as jasmine) Pleats Please is entirely clean but one can’t help but feel a little bit of flower funk would go a little way to making things a bit more textured – perhaps we’ll see a Pleats Please Intense in the future?

In the base Pleats Please feels like a far cry from the vivacious and sparkly fragrance it started out as. Warm, comforting notes of vanilla and musk give things a soft and plush feel, rounding the fragrance off with in subtle, velvety tones.

The Verdict

Issey Miyake Pleats Please may not be a dramatic work of olfactory art but it does stand out amongst other fragrances of a similar nature because of its subtle approach to well-established themes. With gentle execution it displays the modern fruity floral as an every-day fragrance with stripes of colour to give it a touch of designer flare.