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Renowned Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato has utilised Epson’s digital textile printing to create his latest collection.
Eson’s dry fibre technology, which is already used commercially to recycle office paper and which requires virtually no water, has been adapted to produce printable non-woven fabric from used garments. The new fabric production process is part of a three-year collaboration between Epson and Mr Nakazato.
The collaboration between Epson and Mr Nakazato builds on the success of the company’s printing support for his couture and evolves the level of his creations to enable the low-impact production of high-quality custom garments. Both Epson and Mr Nakazato are keen to raise awareness of the water and material waste associated with excess production.
The fabric taken to create the latest Yuima Nakazato fashion line was derived from material from used garments sourced from Africa, the destination for many discarded garments from elsewhere in the world. Mr Nakazato visited Kenya where he collected around 150kg of waste garment material destined for the ‘clothes mountain’ of discarded textiles he encountered there. Epson then applied its dry fibre process to produce over 50 metres of new re-fiberised non-woven fabric, some of which was used for printing with pigment inks with Epson’s Monna Lisa digital printing technology.
Hitoshi Igarashi from Epson’s Printing Solutions Division explains the importance of the technology: “Although in its early stages, Epson believes its dry fibre technology combined with pigment ink digital printing could offer the fashion industry a much more sustainable future, significantly reducing water use while allowing designers the freedom to fully express their creativity.
“Epson’s Environmental Vision is committed to contributing to a circular economy, and this development could be one step towards achieving this. Dry fibre technology applied to the fashion industry offers the possibility of producing material for new clothes that have been recycled from used garments.”
The new YUIMA NAKAZATO collection was showcased at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week from Monday, January 23 to Thursday, January 26. The Paris Show illustrated how switching to digital textile printing using more environmentally friendly pigment inks offers the fashion industry a more sustainable and less wasteful means of textile printing.
