On January 23, 2020, YUIMA NAKAZATO presented their couture collection for Spring/Summer 2020 at Paris Fashion Week.

'Eventually, each and every garment will be unique and different.' With this belief, YUIMA NAKAZATO has always aspired to create tailor-made pieces that harmonize with the individuality of each wearer. To this end, the team at YUIMA NAKAZATO has engaged in ongoing development of modifiable garments centered around the "Type-1" unit system, a design methodology that allows the wearer to easily alter the look and shape of clothing.

In this collection, YUIMA NAKAZATO captures the strength, beauty, harmony, and respect for life as embodied by the legendary tale of the phoenix.

"Tales of the legendary phoenix have persisted across diverse cultural traditions since ancient times. The depiction of the phoenix in the works of Osamu Tezuka, flying through space and time, speaks to both the strength and folly of humanity and calls us to contemplate the preciousness of life. On a personal level, the tales of this legendary bird have deeply influenced my perspective on the contemporary meaning of beauty," said designer Yuima Nakazato.

This collection marks the seventh time that YUIMA NAKAZATO has participated as a formally-invited guest designer in Paris Fashion Week, and serves as an opportunity to introduce the latest iteration of their Biosmocking technology, first unveiled for the Autumn/Winter 2019 season. In addition to controlling the supercontraction feature of the specially designed textiles through digital fabrication to create various surface textures, Biosmocking is now also capable of creating fabric whose shape and form is freely modifiable.

This technology, which utilizes no sewing or cloth cutting techniques and produces garments designed from the molecular and fabric levels upwards, can create limitless variations of sizes, styles, and accessories to suit different body types and preferences. YUIMA NAKAZATO believes this development represents an important step towards their goal of offering unique clothing capable of matching the diversity and variety represented by their customers.

For this collection, the Brewed Protein materials which form the base of YUIMA NAKAZATO' s Biosmocking technology are utilized in the shoes and accessories featured in each look, as well as in all garments. Furthermore, by employing a waste-minimizing production process as well as upcycling material cutoffs, efforts were made to reduce environmental impact and improve sustainability across the collection.

Having respect for both the individual and our natural environment, and the harmony that exists between them. Creating clothing made from a series of uncut rectangles, much like the Japanese kimono, yet tailor-made in the tradition of Western fashion design—an entirely new approach to pattern making born from a fusion of Eastern and Western clothing traditions. Developing a production process that encompasses a time-honoured approach to craftsmanship and merges it with the latest in biotechnology and digital fabrication. Each of these endeavors is its own unique challenge, yet taken together, the team at YUIMA NAKAZATO believes they represent exciting progress towards a new future for fashion.

[1] TYPE-1

Free from the traditional constraints posed by needle and thread, YUIMA NAKAZATO's proprietary TYPE-1 clothing production system is instantly customizable, easily repairable, and flexible enough for users to adjust the shape and size of garments to adapt to changes in body shape. The system employs environmentally-friendly resin (derived from 99% plant-based materials) and metal clasps to join distinct pieces of fabric into whole garments.

[2]  Biosmocking

Biosmocking, a textile-modelling method for creating three-dimensional textures, utilizes digital fabrication to precisely control the supercontraction property of specially-tailored Brewed Protein textiles, and makes it possible to bring an entirely new sense of depth to garments. As can be seen in this collection, experimentation with numerous prototypes and fabrication techniques has further improved this production process, resulting in the ability to create three-dimensional textures as well as modify the shape of the material itself.

[3] Brewed Protein™

Brewed Protein refers to new sustainable protein materials developed by Spiber Inc. Using Spiber's proprietary technology, Brewed Protein materials can be tailored to meet the needs of each particular application. Furthermore, as the materials are created through a brewing (i.e. fermentation) process, their production is not reliant on petroleum or animals. This sustainable and ethical material is anticipated for use in various industrial sectors such as apparel, transportation, construction, artificial hair, and medical devices.