Textile Solutions
Epson has partnered with renowned Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato and his eponymous brand to unveil creations that are both stunning and sustainable. In addition to utilising Epson’s digital textile printing to reproduce his 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 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 on January 25, 2023.
The fabric taken to create the latest fashion line was derived from used garments sourced from Africa, the destination for much discarded material from elsewhere in the world. Yuima Nakazato visited Kenya where he collected around 150 kg 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 its Monna Lisa digital printing technology.
Hitoshi Igarashi from the 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.’
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