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Fabric printed by the sustainable inkjet textile printer "FOREARTH" was presented as a collaboration work by the fashion brand "ANREALAGE" at the Paris Fashion Week® Fall/Winter 2024-2025.

28/02/2024

Schiphol-Rijk, The Netherlands–Kyocera Document Solutions Europe, B.V., one of the world’s leading document solutions companies, is pleased to announce that a womenswear collaboration designed and created by Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga, a designer and founder of the Japanese fashion brand "ANREALAGE," using fabric printed by Kyocera’s inkjet textile printer "FOREARTH", has debuted at the 2024-2025 Fall/Winter Paris Fashion Week. The event was held in Paris, France beginning on Monday, the 26th of February and running until Tuesday, the 5th of March 2024. The collaboration with Kyocera was announced on Tuesday, the 27th of February at 17:00 (CET).

Paris Fashion Week

“This is both a proud and historic moment for our organisation,” says Takuya Marubayashi, President of Kyocera Document Solutions Europe, B.V. “At Paris Fashion Week, we saw beautiful designs be brought to life with stunning quality by “FOREARTH”, a testament to the power of our era-defining inkjet technology. We truly believe that, with inkjet, an exciting new chapter of textile printing has just begun."

1.Background of this collaboration

Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga commends the concept of "FOREARTH", an inkjet textile printer that dramatically reduces water usage in fabric printing. This contributes to solving long-standing issues in the fashion industry, such as printing-related water pollution, and waste caused by the mass disposal of overstocked fabric and clothing. This collaboration was born from the designer and Kyocera’s shared values.

2.About the designer, Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga

Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga is a designer known for innovatively combining fashion and technology. His unique perspective and creativity have attracted worldwide attention. In 2003, Mr. Morinaga established the brand "ANREALAGE", which recognises fashion as a tool to change everyday life. He debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2014 and was selected as one of eight finalists out of 1,700 global designers at the LVMH PRIZE, founded by Moët Hennessy ‐ Louis Vuitton in 2019. In 2021, he worked on the official uniforms for the Japanese pavilion of the Dubai Expo, and in 2023, he created stage costumes for Beyonce's World Tour. Mr. Morinaga’s distinct ability to express himself through fashion continues to surprise and impact the industry.

Paris Fashion Week

Comment from Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga

The theme of this collection is “OBJECT”. I pursued the idea of clothes for inanimate objects, rather than for humans. The show reflects the world 100 years from now, in the 22nd century, and expresses what kind of clothes will be available and what kind of fashion shows will be held there. In this show, I try to express the concept of “FOREARTH” to reduce water usage in the form of clothes, and I showed a dress like a drop of water. Clothes are usually made to fit the human body, but I conceptualised the perfect sphere as the human body and made a frilly dress to wrap around the sphere. The dress itself looks like a drop of water when the sphere is wearing the dress, but when you peel it off the sphere, it turns into a dress that people wear. In all my years of making clothes, I always thought it was natural to use a lot of water for prints, and using water would maintain the colours, vibrant expression, and texture of the fabric. However, I was very impressed that the fabric printed with FOREATH achieves the same vibrant and high-definition expression even though it uses very little water. The texture of the textile itself was not spoiled at all and the softness of the fabric was maintained.

I think new technology is necessary for evolution, not only in fashion, but also in the wider world. “FOREARTH” enables us to express what we have not been able to achieve before, and it is very important for our own creation that this will lead to a more sustainable future, the 22nd century. 

3.Features of the inkjet textile printer "FOREARTH"

1)Water Free Concept

Dramatically reduces water usage in textile printing. *

2)Creative Free

Proprietary pigment ink realizes both soft hand-feel prints and high fastness in a wide range of fabrics.

3)Location Free

Textile printing does not rely on a water source, so companies can set up anywhere, thus reducing logistics costs, time, and excess inventories. This device supports optimised production volumes from almost any location.

"This is both a proud and historic moment for our organisation.

As "FOREARTH" significantly reduces water usage in textile printing to next to zero, it does not require separate facilities for steaming and washing. These are needed in the pre- and post-treatment processes in conventional textile printing. The water reduction also contributes to a dramatic decrease in energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Furthermore, the device maintains the softness of fabric, which is important in the textile and fashion industry, and enables high-definition printing on a wide range of materials, such as cotton, silk, polyester, nylon, and blended fabrics.

* FOREARTH has a two-step printing and drying process. The printing process is water free, while the maintenance process uses a significantly reduced volume of water. FOREARTH recycles the water that is used to clean its conveyor belt, using filters, so water consumption per 1kg of fabric is just 0.02L, compared with the 153L** used in traditional printing per 1kg of fabric (Based on Kyocera research, in 2022).

**Kujanpää , M. & Nors , M. (2014). Environmental performance of future digital textile printing. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.VTT Customer Report Vol. VTT CR 04462 14

Click here for more information about the inkjet textile printer "FOREARTH”.

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