This book is the evidence of the collaboration between a great photographer and a great designer which has been conducted silently and intuitively from different continents for more than a decade. It is the summation of Irving Penn's view of the work of Issey Miyake. The work of one provides a mirror for the work of the other. The photographs allow Issey Miyake to look again at his designs as if they were completely new. In turn, the designs provide Irving Penn with the chance to engage with texture, surface, natural form and the folds and hang of cloth, coupled with the veils and masks of foreign culture - the substance of much of his long career. Mark Holborn