Miyako Nakamura Styles Our Latest Fall Collection

September 07, 2018 | Filed in: Your Closet

Our creative director and head of design, Miyako, is always the coolest-looking woman in the room, and she never runs out of innovative, chic ways to wear her MM. Here, she styles herself in pieces from our fall collection “Give and Take” (coming next week—keep an eye on your inbox!) and shares the inspiration behind a few of her favorite pieces.

I see this collection as a continuation of what we started to do last year, in terms of being more adventurous with our shapes. We’ve expanded on that in this collection by widening the sleeves on some garments, or really accentuating the shape of the waist on others. We also started doing knit tailoring last year, which felt very true to us, and I wanted to continue that this season.

Miyako wears the Royal Checker scarf as a skirt, the Sabrina top (coming in Part 2 of Give and Take), and the Odile earrings.

Many of the reference images for this collection came from the 1940s and 1950s. I really love clothing from the past: I feel like back then people were so much more personalized in how they dressed, in terms of flattering their figures and expressing their personalities. Now, a lot of clothing is really generic. I wanted our collection to feel charming and personalized in that classic way.

Miyako wears the Amanda dress and the Odile earrings.

I often think about a woman’s shape when I’m designing, but at the same time, I love menswear. I like the idea of having masculine elements to your clothing without necessarily having everything be boxy. When women wear menswear shirts or belts, I find it quite sexy—I think it almost accentuates their femininity. Wearing an oversized shirt with a belt, or a voluminous silhouette with a nipped waist, or a straight skirt with a hint of hip shape built into it makes the whole look a lot stronger and more powerful.

This collection contains a lot of elements of menswear: For instance, we have a big thick belt that you can wear with high-waisted pants, and a double-breasted blazer that almost looks like menswear—but when you close it, it’s quite feminine. We also created a men’s tie-inspired print for several of our fall dresses and separates.

Miyako wears the Royal Checker scarf as a skirt, the Sabrina top (coming in Part 2 of Give and Take), and the Odile earrings.

For this shoot, I had the idea to take the Royal Checker scarf and wear it as a skirt. I’ve always liked wearing things in ways they were not necessarily intended to be worn. Creating those different shapes is exciting to me.

Miyako wears the Costello pant and the Sabrina top (coming in Part 2 of Give and Take) with the Royal Checker scarf.

I also really love the trouser we developed this season. We designed it using our new sharkskin fabric, with a high waist. It’s truly a power trouser. What’s really exciting about it for me is that it is actually designed to emphasize the waist. Often when you have a menswear-inspired trouser, the waist falls lower, and then you kind of have to wear it around your hips. But this is actually tailored to fit your shape. I wore it with a blouse that is quite feminine with the draped high neck, and the scarf, which is very soft, and even though the pattern evokes a men’s tie, it’s still very light and flowy. This collection for me was an opportunity to really play with both masculine and feminine elements. I hope our customer is inspired to do the same!