Image Credit: INHERIT SS2023

Tucked away amongst the visual fashion delights of the DIRTY LOOKS exhibition at The Barbican, under ‘DUST TO DUST,’ were collections by the Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato. Nakazato is the only Japanese designer showing at Paris Haute Couture week. He is leading the way in sustainable fashion production and is a guest designer at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. As I took the time to read the supporting literature about his collections and stood patiently watching his 12 minute documentary video by Kosai Sekine, I found myself looking around searching for someone, bursting to say – ‘my God… can you believe this!’ 

The theme of the waste pumped out by the fashion industry, meandered throughout the exhibition, protesting about the issue through the creation of the designer’s collections. But here was a designer, putting his money where his mouth is, going to see for himself and offering the industry a solution. We had already been informed that the Fashion Industry is the third most polluting industry on the planet, confirming that we are indeed generations of hypocrites, with a mouthful of ‘save the plant,’ platitudes but hearts full of consumer avarice. Language such as ‘sacrifice zones’ is now being used to describe the areas, away from fashion production, where the waste dumping occurs. Areas such as Kenya, Ghana, the Atacama Desert in Chile, have their landscapes scarred and altered as we, in the Western World, contribute to this practice, now termed as ‘waste colonisation’.

Nakazato took himself off to one of these ‘sacrifice zones’ in Nairobi, Kenya to see for himself. ‘On average, more than 160,000 tons of used clothes are imported into Kenya every year and more than 20 containers are delivered every day.’

Image Credit: Kosai Sekine, DUST TO DUST (2024)

Nakazato witnessed the communities living alongside these festering dumps as though they were part of the ecosystem. Alex Musembi, General Manager of ’Africa called Textiles’ also highlights the devastation to the climate. He says, ‘… anything that cannot be used as trash… people or trade has disposed into the river and that’s the sad reality we are talking about… These rivers connect to lakes and into ocean and the marine life is being compromised… these fish eat this micro-plastic and we are the same human being within the valley chain with the same animals within the ecosystem, then we are the enemy of ourselves.’

Image Credit: Kosai Sekine, DUST TO DUST (2024)

Nakazato visited the colourful markets selling some of this waste, which ironically create their own dumps from the waste they cannot clear. He bought bundles of fashion waste from these markets, not as a virtue gesture but with a plan. He set off for Japan and with grit and determination, he approached Seiko Epson Corp – a company who was using new technology to break waste paper down into new paper. He challenged them to use this same process on clothing waste to create new products.

Image Credit: Kosai Sekine, DUST TO DUST (2024)

The resulting fabric was his inspiration from his SS2023 INHERIT collection.

Image Credit: INHERIT SS2023

So how does Nakazato take this new product to market? He says, ‘if we try and hit everyone over the head with a solution, the fashion world won’t respond to that. So instead we need to say – we’ve brought together technology and design and created the possibility for new types of clothing design. If we take that road, then it’s easy for people in the industry to understand and they may feel motivated to try some of these new materials in their own creations and then hopefully build a groundswell of support for these ideas.’

But why does the fashion world need to be hit over the head? Why aren’t they seeking out these solutions? This is the future of textiles and it’s time for the industry to step up and stop talking about this and take action – now… 

Nakazato doesn’t intend to rest on his laurels for future collections, he says, ‘My next idea is something like… not exactly a sequel of this INHERIT collection but rather a continuation of the INHERIT concept itself. I don’t see this collection as having come to an end, but rather, I think this is just the beginning. So I think it’s really important to keep going. To spread the word from Paris out to the world that we need to keep questioning what we’re doing. Nothing will change if these issues are only raised in one collection. So I want to keep engaging these issues and see where it goes.’

Image Credit: Josie Barry

FADE collection SS2025: ‘inspired by a visit to the chalk rock foundations of the Sahara el Beyda in Egypt, a desert which once sat at the bottom of the sea. Imagining how climate change will one day transform a city like Tokyo in the same way it had transformed this desert, the collection blended technological elements such as Epson DFT fabrics and lab-grown protein fibres, with ideas of ageing and weathering depicted using metal chains and ceramics.‘ 

Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Prices: £20. Students £14. ‘Pay what you can.’