Growing up just outside Hiroshima, Issey Miyake witnessed the atomic bomb explosion in 1945 in his city, aged 7. His mother died three years later, after being badly burned, and he suffered from radiation-related diseases. Photograph: Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Miyake studied graphic design at the Tama Art University in Tokyo. But piqued by the crossover between disciplines, he pivoted to fashion and moved to Paris to become an apprentice to Guy Laroche and eventually work for Hubert de Givenchy around the time Audrey Hepburn was wearing his dresses. A keen sportsman, function became the linchpin of Miyake’s work. His most famous and most affordable clothes, the Pleats Please line, was launched in 1993 as a retort to the price and unwearability of high-end fashion.Another huge issue with this scent is performance. It is a very fleeting fragrance which you will have to apply liberally to smell after 4 hours. I think there are many others from the house's Summer line which would be better alternatives to this for "sports" like activities. A disappointment in almost every aspect from smell, to versatility, to use of notes and performance. I don't know why L'Eau d'Issey PH would need a sports version – it has been pretty much of a sports-like fragrance since its inception. But, then. Issey Miyake has produced only seventeen or eighteen flankers of L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme, so maybe they aren't overdoing the flanker thing… Step into a world where timeless elegance meets modern innovation with Issey Miyake Fragrances. Discover an olfactory journey like no other, where each scent is a testament to the brand’s iconic style and unwavering commitment to sustainability.

Miyake never expected to reach old age. He was born in Hiroshima, the son of an army officer and a teacher, and evacuated to a nearby small town during the second world war. At 8.15am on 6 August 1945, he was at primary school when he saw the flash of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Seven-year-old Miyake set out alone for the family house, 2.3km from the blast centre, searching among the heaped dead and dying for his mother.In a rare 2009 op-ed for the New York Times, Miyake recounted just how much that day, and his mother’s subsequent death, informed his creativity. “I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put them behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy. I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic. The first time I tested L'Eau d'Issey PH Sport, the opening presented to me a full, piercing citrus note. That was the note that stayed with me through almost the complete run of the fragrance. I think the piercing quality of the citrus was helped by the vetiver and cedar from the base. It was not an impressive demonstration because the citrus was somewhat of the the Lemon Pledge variety. The next several times I tested it, I would have preferred the first version… Instead of a direct citrus, all I could smell was a very synthetic grapefruity version - something reminiscent of several Calvin Kline scents of the past two decades.