The London Design Museum Awards, known in the industry as fashion’s Oscar awards, honors the best of the best in the world of style. This year’s competition was fierce, with judges having to choose among contestants like Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen wedding dress for the Duchess of Cambridge and French label Céline’s sleek car-inspired fall collection. But when it came to awarding pure innovation, nothing could top Issey Miyake’s 132.5 collection.

The 132.5 collection is a series of clothing made from recycled materials, such as plastic bottles reduced and woven into a polyester fabric. But what makes the line truly unique is that each ready-to-wear piece folds flat like origami. The clothing can be stored as a 2-D geometric shape, and then expanded instantly into 3-D dresses, tops and bottoms. The collection was designed with a software program that creates 3-D shapes out of a single piece of paper. The garments take on a paper-like quality, appearing delicate while at the same time being very durable. While the collection isn’t exactly for everyday, it gives an insight into what’s possible with the future of space-saving clothes. No iron needed. See a video of the clothes in action after the jump.

At Paper Culture, we even have a few origami invitations of our own.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the things we strive for here at Paper Culture is fresh, clean modern design. So when our creative director wins a Mohawk Show 11 Award, I feel it’s worth sharing – and celebrating!

The Mohawk Show recognizes both the beauty and brains of design. Judges Marty Neumeier (chairperson), Diti Katona, Bryan Edmondson, and Gaby Brink reviewed almost 1,000 entries for the Mohawk award. Five winners were chosen based on intelligence, wit, virtuosity, and production excellence, including the California Academy of Science for Evolution at the California Academy of Science and Cahan & Associates for TED Program Guide.

Competition is fierce. Finalists in the stationery category included Kate Spade and Rebecca Ward Invitation, both with superb entries. But the winner is (envelope please)….Paper Culture’s The Faces of Stationery. (Now you can clap.)

While the judging for Mohawk Show 11 was held in New York in June 2010, our Paper Culture team was invited to sip some champagne with winners last week in San Francisco. Here’s a toast to Huiling Chen, creative director at Paper Culture for her beautiful note cards and stationery designs that inspire us all!