Kenya’s waste garments have made it to the Paris Haute Couture Fashion week thanks to a partnership between global technology company Epson and Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato.
Nakazato visited Kenya where he collected around 150 kg of waste garment material destined for the “clothes mountain” of discarded textiles he encountered in the country.
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.
Epson’s Regional Head East and West Africa, Mukesh Bector, says 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.
In addition to utilising Epson’s digital textile printing to reproduce his unique and creative worldview, YUIMA NAKAZATO realised some of its creations with the help of a new, more sustainable and potentially industry-transforming textile production process.
Epson’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 was revealed in Paris as part of a three-year collaboration between Epson and Yuima Nakazato and was used in the creation of items for the first time during the latter’s runway show at the Palais de Tokyo.
“The collaboration between Epson and Yuima 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,” Noted Mr Mukesh.
Both Epson and Yuima Nakazato are keen to raise awareness of the water and material waste associated with excess production. The Paris Show illustrates 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.
“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 explains Hitoshi Igarashi from Epson’s Printing Solutions Division,” He adds.
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.
In a trial of distributed printing for venue decoration, Epson inkjet printers in Japan and France with remote support from Epson engineers were used to create decorations in the venue space. Both Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO intend to continue exploring the possibilities for contributing to a more sustainable fashion industry.
