Japanese Fashion Designer Flexes Muscles with 3D Printing

Article by Stratasys Staff

Yuima Nakazato is a 28 year old Japanese fashion designer who graduated from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts with an MA in fashion design and had his first collection in Paris in 2009. Since then, his name has been decorated with many awards. His professional fame was firmly established when he created stage costumes for Lady Gaga and world tour costumes for Fergie.

The concept of this year’s collection is based on Nakazato’s vision of a neo-futuristic sport: “young street punks, riding on motorcycles, playing a basketball-like sports game in an underground dune stadium.” For this imaginary game, Nakazato designed an original uniform and used the Stratasys multi-material 3D Printer to design bibs that combine numbers and images of human muscles, reflecting his artistic obsession with the idea of “clothing as extension of the body.”

Starting with the modeling of a muscle fiber for the bibs, he used rubber-like and transparent materials that were simultaneously 3D printed with the Objet500 Connex multi-material 3D Printer to produce the clear, soft and flexible parts. These parts were then colored to achieve the desired look and feel.

Sun Junjie, a young designer who collaborated on this project, explains that

“Innovative technologies enable us to go beyond traditional limits. They will not only change reality, but also a world of imagination…The Objet500 Connex 3D Printer is perfect for this kind of creative, iterative manufacturing. It provides amazing 16 micron precision, the multi-material capability and a variety of material choices“ 

Junjie goes on to explain that without the Objet500 Connex multi-material 3D printing technology, it would never have been possible to create such complicated geometries in such a short amount of time.

In addition to his futuristic vision, Nakazato is also very excited about the immediate and practical benefits of 3D printing:

“I sometimes get an urgent order from the US for which a customer might say, ‘Send me this dress today. I have an award ceremony tomorrow.’ Currently, it’s impossible for us to meet her requirements because it would take days to make a dress and ship it to Hollywood from Tokyo. However, in the future when we begin making dresses with 3D printing, all we will have to do is to send her 3D design files by e-mail. She could 3D print it in Hollywood and make it to the red carpet the next day.”

Details of Yuima Nakazato 2014 Collection can be found on his website http://www.yuimanakazato.com

or on his official Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/yuimanakazatoofficial