Renowned Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato and technology leader Epson have taken their partnership to new heights with the debut of an innovative couture collection at the prestigious Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. The collaboration aims to revolutionize the fashion industry by championing sustainability and introducing a fabric production process that holds immense potential.
The collection, showcased at the Palais de Tokyo, showcases beautifully designed couture pieces that embody a harmonious blend of Epson’s sustainable digital textile printing technology and a groundbreaking fabric production process. By leveraging Epson’s more sustainable Monna Lisa direct-to-fabric digital textile printing technology, the collection boasts vibrant colors and meticulous attention to detail.
At the core of this collection lies Epson’s dry fiber technology, previously used for paper recycling, which now finds new life in transforming used and discarded garments into non-woven re-fiberized fabric. This experimental fabric production process, first unveiled earlier this year through a three-year collaboration between Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO, has been refined to enhance fabric quality, making it thinner, more flexible, and easier to print on.
Moreover, Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO have seized this opportunity to raise awareness about the water and material waste associated with traditional garment production methods. By embracing digital textile printing with sustainable pigment inks, the fashion industry can adopt a more environmentally responsible approach that minimizes waste and resource consumption.
The show-stopping couture range exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo was created using the Epson ML-13000, a prototype direct-to-fabric digital textile printer renowned for its flexibility and vivid color reproduction on various fabrics and surfaces. To produce the fabric for the YUIMA NAKAZATO collection, Yuima Nakazato traveled to Kenya, where he purchased approximately 150 kilograms of used garments bound for “clothes mountains” formed by discarded Western clothing. Epson then employed its dry re-fiberization process on this waste material, resulting in over 150 meters of non-woven fabric that was subsequently printed on using Epson’s Monna Lisa digital printing technology with pigment inks.
Hitoshi Igarashi, from Epson’s Printing Solutions Division, emphasized the significance of this technology, stating, “Epson believes its dry fiber 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 continuous advancements have improved the quality and printability of re-fiberized fabric, making it less dense, more resilient, and exceptionally flexible, perfectly suited for printing on using the Monna Lisa direct-to-fabric digital textile printer. This evolution in fabric thickness has resulted in a 37.5 per cent weight reduction, reducing it from 160 g/m2 to 100 g/m2.
The ML-13000 plays a crucial role in reducing the environmental impact of textile printing. With a pigment ink process that slashes water usage by 96 per cent compared to dye-based inks, the printer has boosted productivity by 300 per cent through its integrated pre- and post-printing processes. Thanks to its ability to print ink and three different types of liquid simultaneously, the ML-13000 enhances brilliance, durability, and flexibility. Epson’s commitment to a circular economy is evident in this groundbreaking initiative, where discarded garments are upcycled into new clothing through the harmonious combination of Yuima Nakazato’s creative vision and Epson’s cutting-edge technology.
While still in the experimental stage with textiles, the development of dry fiber technology has the potential to transform the fashion industry into a more sustainable and environmentally conscious sector. Epson’s unwavering dedication to its Environmental Vision aligns with the goal of achieving a circular economy, and this collaboration with Yuima Nakazato represents a significant stride towards that vision.
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