Colorful pleated dresses worn by staff at Ms Lam Montessori in Brooklyn drew attention online after viewers mistook them for designs by Issey Miyake. The uniforms are by Yamasaki Takashi, the school’s head, Stephanie Woo, told The Guardian and Vogue.
The episode began with an October 6, 2026, post on a Williamsburg subreddit asking why school employees appeared to wear Issey Miyake every day. The Guardian reported that images later circulated on X and received 3.5 million views, a figure attributed to the newspaper’s reporting rather than independently verified here.
The uniform behind the comparison
Woo said the Yamasaki Takashi dresses are worn across the school’s locations. She described the choice as practical as well as aesthetic, citing comfort, durability, understated design and a lower price. The school’s website confirms that Ms Lam operates five Brooklyn campuses, but does not identify the uniform brand.
The Yamasaki Takashi brand describes pleating, color and Japanese origami as elements of its design. Its website says founder Yamasaki Takashi established a Harajuku studio in 1976. These details help explain why the clothes prompted comparisons with another Japanese fashion house, but they do not establish that the school’s uniforms were modeled on Issey Miyake.
Issey Miyake’s official history records the launch of PLEATS PLEASE in 1993. The house describes its garment-pleating process as one in which clothing is sewn first and pleated afterward. The shared use of pleats provides a clear point of comparison, but the available sources do not show that Yamasaki Takashi copied Miyake.
A fashion scholar quoted by The Guardian said she saw similarities in the pleating, alongside differences in patterns, colors and silhouettes. She also said she did not necessarily regard designers working with similar elements as copycats.
Why the school chose uniforms
Woo said uniforms help children recognize which adults at school can assist them. She also said the school wants young children to be surrounded by beauty, reflected in the headline’s phrase that children are naturally drawn to it. These are Woo’s stated reasons and beliefs, not independently established findings about educational outcomes.
The Guardian reported that Ms Lam has 14 locations in Taiwan as well as five in Brooklyn. It said staff in Taiwan had worn the uniforms for 12 years and Brooklyn staff for eight, citing the school. Those historical details were not independently corroborated in the research reviewed.
The school’s website describes its Brooklyn program as Montessori education with Mandarin immersion. That information provides context for the institution, but does not independently confirm the uniforms’ supplier or the school’s account of their selection.
What the online attention does and does not show
The viral attention began with a social-media question, not a verified account of the school’s clothing policy. The reported X view total indicates the reach of the images as described by The Guardian; it does not establish that viewers broadly agreed on the brand or that the clothing was made by Issey Miyake.
Woo’s identification of Yamasaki Takashi is consistent across her accounts to The Guardian and Vogue, and the brand’s public description is consistent with the pleated appearance that prompted the comparison. No independent supplier or purchase record was found, however. Claims about the uniforms’ exact price advantage and wash durability should therefore remain attributed to Woo rather than treated as independently verified.