Epson and fashion designer Yuima Nakazato have partnered to reduce the industry’s environmental impact while enabling the creation of high-quality custom clothing.
Epson’s digital textile printing technology can reproduce fine gradations and subtle tones and, according to the company, is ideal for short-run production with quick turnarounds because it does not require printing plates. It also uses less water, ink, and chemicals than conventional analogue printing.
The purpose of the partnership is to reduce the environmental impact of clothing production in the fashion industry, implement an optimum mode of production that can provide more personalised designs than the conventional method of mass-producing the same designs, and jointly research and develop future technology for realizing this.
Yuima Nakazato employed Epson’s Fujimi Solution Center to print on ultra-thin materials such as silk organdie. Epson will continue to work with the designer to develop new clothing possibilities using inkjet technology. Epson claims this digital technology has many advantages over traditional textile printing. It uses less water, creates less waste because textiles can be produced in only the volume needed, and is cleaner. Moreover, the pigment inks used do not require steaming or washing treatments after printing.