To Each Individual, His Own Design: Yuima Nakazato

UNIT DESIGN PROCESS

The units are inspired by origami, the art of folding a single sheet of paper into various shapes.
Nakazato uses state-of-the-art equipment to make precise cuts in two-dimensional sheets, and then folds these to create three-dimensional unit parts.

CRAFTMANSHIP

After being cut by machine, the units are assembled by hand.
Hundreds or thousands of units are used in each garment, with each of these units folded like origami.
The combination of tasks that can only be performed by machine with tasks that can only be performed by human hands results in a totally new type of clothing.

CELL

Unit-constructed clothing, inspired by ice crystals, consists of cells—units—that are brought together to create faces and cover bodies.

YUIMA NAKAZATO 2017SS

The units have evolved further in Nakazato’s 2017 SS couture collection. Greater flexibility enables the units to be combined with a range of other materials.
Inspired by alchemy, this collection combined materials representing fire, wind, water, and earth to create the textiles.

Nakazato has adopted a mathematical approach, calculating the number of units required to create the garment from each pattern.

Following the pattern and the combination of units, the various two-dimensional materials become a garment that covers a three-dimensional human form.

Thousands of units are carefully combined, one unit at a time. Every garment in the collection is assembled by a simple system requiring only insertion.

Nakazato’s concept of unit-constructed clothing means that a range of different patterns, shapes, and materials can co-exist in a single textile. The system enables units to be detached or added to update the final garment in various ways. It therefore allows the garment to be immediately altered to fit the wearer, regardless of the wearer’s body shape, and takes Nakazato a step closer to achieving his vision of “To each individual, his own design.”