Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato, who will show his couture collection Wednesday, has a busy year ahead. Just a few days beforehand, he was in Geneva working on his costumes for the ballet “Idoménée” at the Grand Théatre de Genève, which opens next month. Word on the street has it that those costumes were the inspiration for the designs set to hit the runway next week.
Coming up this summer, meanwhile, is the avant-garde couturier’s first monographic exhibition, “Yuima Nakazato, Beyond Couture,” at the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode in Calais, northern France.
The exhibition will feature around 50 pieces from his sculptural, otherworldly couture collections as well as accessories, sketches, technical drawings, fabric samples, photos and videos.
“What is shown on the runway is only a small part of the creative process,” Nakazato explained to WWD. “I think exhibitions are important in the sense that they allow people to see the creativity that exists outside of the runway.”
Inspired by nature and committed to sustainable creation, he has often used the catwalk as a conduit for commentary on climate change, most recently by referencing — and incorporating in his textiles — Africa’s mountain of fabric waste in both his spring and fall 2023 collections.
Nakazato has been a guest member on the Paris couture calendar since 2016, only the second Japanese designer to officially show during couture, after Hanae Mori.
He is an innovator as much as a designer. His 2008 graduation collection — he studied at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts — earned accolades for applying the origami technique to fashion. Since then he has continually aimed to push boundaries in textile fabrication with innovative fabrics and techniques, like textiles made with fermented bacteria or designs held together with his Type-1 eyelet fastener system, removing the need for needle and thread and allowing infinite combination possibilities.
“I think with this exhibition, you can get an overview of the fact that we are constantly changing in our creations,” Nakazato said. “They continue to update themselves while destroying things once they have been defined. At the same time, there are core things that remain the same, and the exhibition format is important because it allows you to experience both together. Also, the act of archiving the past in the form of an exhibition can bring a big influence to the future.”
