Fabric Produced from Waste Clothing Using a 3D Printer

Fabric Produced in Printer from Waste Clothing Epson and Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato produced sustainable fabric using Epson printers entirely from waste materials. The fabric that appeared on the runway at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week was produced using inkjet and dry fiber technology, with almost no water used in the process. Epson combined inkjet printing and dry fiber technologies to create striking designs from recycled garments. Epson partnered with renowned Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato and his brand YUIMA NAKAZATO at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week 2023 Spring-Summer event to produce both visually striking and sustainable products. Using Epson's digital textile printing, YUIMA NAKAZATO reflected his original and creative vision in his products, with some designs created through a new textile production process that is more sustainable and has the potential to transform the industry.

3-Year Collaboration Conducted

Epson's dry fiber technology, currently used commercially to recycle office paper and requiring almost no water, was adapted to produce printable nonwoven fabric from used garments. The new fabric production process was presented in Paris as part of a 3-year collaboration between Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO, and was first used to produce pieces shown at YUIMA NAKAZATO's runway show on 25 January 2023 at Palais de Tokyo. The Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO collaboration builds on the company's success in providing printing support tailored to the designer's style, advancing the quality of his work by enabling the production of high-quality custom-designed garments through a low-impact process. Both Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO are committed to raising awareness about water and material waste resulting from overproduction. The Paris presentation demonstrated that turning to digital textile printing using more environmentally friendly pigmented inks offers the fashion industry a more sustainable and less wasteful textile printing option.

Fabrics Sourced from Clothing Mountain in Africa

The fabrics used to create YUIMA NAKAZATO's latest fashion line were obtained from used garments brought from Africa, a destination for discarded clothing from many parts of the world. Traveling to Kenya, Nakazato collected approximately 150 kg of waste garment material from a 'clothing mountain' of discarded textiles he encountered there. Epson then produced over 50 meters of refibreed and nonwoven fabric through the dry fiber process. Part of this fabric was used for printing with pigmented inks using Epson's Monna Lisa digital printing technology. Hitoshi Igarashi from Epson's Print Solutions Division stated: "Epson believes that dry fiber technology combined with pigmented inkjet digital printing, while still in its early stages, can provide a much more sustainable future for the fashion industry by giving designers the freedom to fully express their creativity while significantly reducing water consumption. Epson's Environmental Vision is committed to contributing to a circular economy, and this development may be a step toward achieving that goal. The application of dry fiber technology to the fashion industry provides the opportunity to produce materials for new garments through recycling used fabrics."

Can Also Be Used in Interior Design

Epson inkjet printers in Japan and France, with remote support from Epson engineers, were used to create distributed prints for interior design purposes in a space. Both Epson and YUIMA NAKAZATO intend to continue exploring ways to contribute to a more sustainable fashion industry. Compared to traditional analog methods, digital textile printing using pigmented inks offers a more sustainable approach to fabric production. In addition to pigmented inks requiring less water, the digital process involves far fewer steps and is less complex. Unlike analog printing, digital printing requires no plate production, washing, or storage; thus reducing ink waste and enabling on-demand production with less waste.