The Epoch Of A-POC.(or A Piece of Cloth designed by fashion designer Issey Miyake)(Brief Article)

A few years ago Issey Miyake had a crisis of conscience. "I became a fashion designer to make clothes for the people, not to be a top couturier in the French tradition," the 63-year-old Miyake said recently, seated in his spacious, modern headquarters in Tokyo. Yet there he was, "a society designer," as he puts it now, with a hint of disdain. "I questioned everything. I said, 'I am a liar'."

Since then Miyake has gone back to basics. In 2000 he rolled out A-POC- -or A Piece of Cloth--clothing that's cut from a single piece of woven or knit tubular fabric. The design is the realization of a utopian idea that Miyake has carried with him since the 1960s: to create "universal clothing," inexpensive items that anyone can wear on any occasion. Last month in London, with the help of his new team of twentysomething assistants--"I love their energy and their ideas!" he says--Miyake presented the latest A-POC line. (In keeping with its revolutionary concept, Miyake does not show A-POC on the runway during fashion week but instead does "demonstrations" periodically during the year. "A- POC," he says, "has no epoch.") The designs, as always with Miyake, are avant-garde, in bold colors like aquamarine, butter-cup yellow and strawberry red, and in stark, straight-edged shapes that never the less take on the curves of the body.

When the line was introduced, Miyake encouraged wearers to take scissors and fashion each item as they like--change a V neck into a scoop neck, a maxi into a mini, hack off the sleeves or cut out the back. But these days A-POC has grown from a collection of simple snip- and-wear jersey (known as "Baguette") to include more complicated creations, like a cotton-nylon knit flannel suit or a quadruple-weave supershrunk cotton T shirt with mini-smocking.

Miyake created A-POC with help from his chief textile engineer, Dai Fujiwara. One morning Miyake called in Fujiwara, explained his idea and instructed him to focus on knitwear, because, as Miyake says, "the future of fashion is light, durable ...