YUIMA NAKAZATO presented its latest couture collection, ‘FADE’.
The collection ushers in a new era for YUIMA NAKAZATO, one in which the focus has shifted from technical aspects, such as the use of cutting-edge materials, towards storytelling, extending an invitation to another world.
Yuima travels to a different region of the world to find inspiration for each collection. The route he chose this time was the White Desert National Park, known as “Sahara el Beyda”, located in the eastern part of the Sahara Desert, which once was the bottom of the sea. Standing in the midst of a large white chalk rock formation, created through tens of millions of years of erosion by wind and sand, Yuima witnessed a story of time spanning at a cosmic scale, beyond the lifespan of any one individual person.
Yuima Nakazato
During the journey, his car lost its way in the desert in the middle of the night and continued to drive for hours without any signal or GPS. After being shaken for so long in the backseat and covered in dust that had seeped in through the gaps, Yuima’s sentience leapt into an endless world of imagination. There, the ancient Japanese myth of the giant creature “Namazu” (catfish) that lives under the earth and was believed to be the cause of earthquakes came to his mind.
The title of the work, “FADE”, means weathering. It is a word that describes the gradual disappearance of something, such as memories or materials.
While lost in the desert, as all of his memories, visions, and reality disappeared and reappeared before his eyes, melting into one, it crossed Yuima’s mind that the desert might be foreshadowing the future of Tokyo. Seeing how today’s climate change fades and sometimes completely transforms our everyday environment, perhaps it would not be entirely fair to say that this is merely a flight of fancy.
Technical notes on the production:
This season attempts to visually express a story photographed by Nakazato at the Sahara Desert in the form of clothing. For the technical aspects, we pursued possibilities of expression while reducing environmental impact by using a range of diverse techniques, embracing both tradition and new technologies: weaving on vintage looms originating from Japanese
kimono production; using unique textile designs that combine traditional Japanese handicrafts, such as lacquer, with cutting-edge materials including Brewed Protein™ fibers developed by Spiber Inc.; and digital printing technology together with AI photo processing technology.
DFT to regenerate used clothing brought back from Africa has finally reached a technical milestone after three years.
Last but not least, the atelier’s handcrafting work took longer than any previous collection, further developing this craftsmanship that serves as a symbol of our brand. Making each crochet piece took an average of 500 hours, and the symbolic all-ceramic golden dress took no less than 1,000 hours to complete, with over 2,000 ceramic pieces all crafted, glazed, and threaded with beadings by hand, one by one.
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