Wednesday, 15 March 2023

Designer in Focus: Yuima Nakazato ~ Creating a Sustainable Fashion Future

Portrait of Yuima Nakazato at the Maison Baccarat in Paris and cover picture of the designer's Spring/Summer 2023/24 collection at the Palais de Tokyo by Elli Ioannou for DAM

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato has gained international recognition for his innovative approach to fashion and sustainability and his passion for the environment. Called Inherit, his latest collection is inspired by the mountains of discarded clothing he witnessed in Kenya. In an exclusive interview, he discusses his pioneering design philosophy and vision for the future. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Reporting by Antonio Visconti. Photography by Elli Ioannou, Nathan Geary & Matthew Fisher

Designer Yuima Nakazato backstage

at his haute couture show in Paris.

Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato not only creates avant-garde designs incorporating new technologies but uses his fashion collections to address environmental issues in unprecedented ways. When the designer travelled to Kenya, he wanted to see the waste situation and also to understand how people live there by using only what they get from the land.

A documentary film directed by Tokyo-based Kousai Sekine about this trip, the creation of the Spring/Summer 2023-24 collection and the designer's vision for the future of fashion, will be released later this year.

Nakazato's impressions of Kenya remain kaleidoscopic, he felt both hope and despair throughout the visit, and was touched by seeing the handmade details of what the tribespeople wore, and the intricate beaded jewellery they made themselves. But he was stunned by the enormous amount of garbage piling up in the country.

"My journey began with coming face-to-face with a vast amount of leftover clothing, an experience that left me feeling completely overwhelmed," he explains. "Gazing upon mountains of discarded garments, I was tormented by a sense of despair. It was undeniably obvious that cheap and generic attire such as denim and T-shirts had become utterly universal. A simple yet fundamental question arose in my mind: 'Do we really need to make any more clothes?''

"Gazing upon mountains of discarded garments, I was tormented by a sense of despair...A simple yet fundamental question arose in my mind: 'Do we really need to make any more clothes?'''

A shimmering, diaphanous design from

Yuima Nakazato's latest collection.

Photograph: Elli Ioannou

"The amount of unwanted, disposed-of clothing is almost beyond counting. Left untreated, these discarded garments are a shameful epitome of the social issues we face today.

"As someone who is responsible for designing clothes, I felt an urgent need to visit Kenya and witness this situation with my own eyes," says Nakazato

The designer's latest collection was presented during Paris Haute Couture week and was inspired by the trip to Kenya. "Rather than allowing myself to be overwhelmed by these issues, this collection represents my determination to continue searching for ways to make our world a better place," he explains.

Nakazato has been collaborating with Japanese company Seiko Epson for the past three years. The designer reveals that the collaboration is a partnership that combines the various technologies of Epson with his creativity to solve problems. Working together with the company, he hopes to change the future of the fashion industry by continuing to experiment with new sustainable technology and implement the successful results.

"Rather than allowing myself to be overwhelmed, this collection represents my determination to continue searching for ways to make our world a better place."

Beautiful, rich colours contrasted with

the more earthy pieces inspired by

the African desert.
Photograph: Nathan Geary

The production of the Spring/Summer 2023-24 collection began when 150 kilograms of used clothing was brought back to Japan from Africa. As most of the clothes did not have proper labels, it was impossible to tell where they were from or what they were made of,

"These sorts of clothes are generally very difficult to recycle, but with Seiko Epson's dry fibre technology (DFT) we were able to convert them into new textiles for creating garments," Nakazato says. "It was almost as if we were rescuing clothes that had nowhere else to go." This technology pulverizes old clothes and turns them into new materials. The designer has high hopes for its potential as a form of recycling in the fashion industry.

"DFT is really new, and we were introduced to it only recently, but our response was quick, and we are the first to bring this technology to real clothing, " he explains. "We are also using Epson’s Digital textile printing, which reduces the amount of water and the environmental impact while at the same time, not impairing the expressive power of prints."

"It was almost as if we were rescuing clothes that had nowhere else to go."

The enveloping swathes of silk organza

using the new textile printing technology

by Epson where hand-drawn sketches

can be scanned on to the fabric.

Photograph Matthew Fisher

This technology also allowed Nakazato to transmit his impressions of Africa onto fabric. The diaphanous, chiffon-like colorful textiles used in the collection were created using Epson’s digital textile printing.

The rich hues and earthy tones were printed on silk organza fabric using this technology by scanning sketches inspired by Kenyan landscapes.

Nakazato learned how important water resources are in Kenya, and he embraced the importance of Epson’s technology, which enables printing with less water consumption.

Photographs were also printed for an installation designed to show Earth’s destruction by humanity at Yuima Nakazato's haute couture show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

The models appeared to walk over the "mountains of garbage" the designer had seen in Kenya. After the show, the set design was repurposed using Epson’s recycling technology.

Nakazato says he is continuing to experiment with his Type-1, Brewed Protein and Biosmocking projects.

"Many items from this collection’s 29 looks are Type-1 products which are continually improved, and they remain our signature/standard items. Regarding Biosmocking using Brewed protein™, we also gathered stones from the largest desert in East Africa and ground them down to nano-size natural pigments using submicron/nanoparticle technology developed by the Japanese Painting Laboratory at Joshibi University of Art and Design."

Yuima Nakazato learned how important water resources are in places like Kenya and uses new technology which enables printing with less consumption.

Swathed in Yuima Nakazato's creations, models

wait backstage before the show at the Palais de Tokyo

in Paris. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

"These pigments were used to make dyes, which were employed to colour the synthetic Brewed Protein™ materials developed by Spiber Inc. that feature in the collection.

Witnessing the reddish-brown landscape from the desert being dyed into the artificial protein fibres was quite beautiful, as if the hot, dry African air itself was being carried into the fabric."

The voluminous designs in the new collection allow great freedom for the wearer. "Like the Shibori technique, which has been evolving for the past three seasons, holes are made in the fabric and strings are passed through, making the rectangular fabric three-dimensional and wrapping it around the body in a special way," the designer explains.

"This idea was inspired by the fact that kimonos are made from rectangular pieces of cloth, and this season I felt that the pattern of the Kenyan tribesmen wrapping the cloth around their bodies resembled the pattern of kimonos and the idea expanded from there."

"This season I felt the pattern of the Kenyan tribesmen wrapping the cloth around their bodies resembled the pattern of kimonos."

The jewellery specially designed for the

collection worn with the fabric that

captures the earthy Kenyan landscape.

Photograph: Elli Ioannou

The designer's startling neckpieces provided a dramatic foil to the fluid and flowing designs in the collection, "The ceramic jewellery was inspired by the beadwork worn by Kenyan desert tribesmen," he comments.

"In the course of my research, I discovered that bead decorations have been handed down from the most ancient times of humankind for 100,000 years and exist all over the world.

"Wearing decoration is the root of fashion, it is an act of wearing culture and is the basis of jewellery design. I wanted to once again propose bead decoration as a cultural act that should not be lost in contemporary fashion and in thinking about future clothing."

The designer travelled from Nairobi to the hinterland of Northern Kenya and witnessed tribespeople living in the desert, suffering from the harsh conditions created by water shortages, caused by climate change. The people dress in vivid clothes and yet endure a life in an inhospitable environment.

The designer's startling ceramic neckpieces provide a dramatic foil to the fluid and flowing designs in the collection.

The colours in the new collection were

inspired by the vivid hues of the clothes

Nakazato saw in Kenya.

Photograph: Elli Ioannou

"I was particularly captivated by their clothing: against a backdrop of desert sand, the tribespeople wrap their bodies in many colorful fabrics, utilizing oranges, greens, and purples and wearing beaded necklaces and earrings."

Nakazato is an idealist and has always seen his work as not only about creating beautiful, useful garments but also about using fashion as a tool for positive change.

"I want to create clothes that have a deeper meaning, clothes that will inspire people to think about the world and how they can contribute." His dedication to sustainable practices and his respect for tradition are evident in all of his collections,

From the start of his career, Yuima Nakazato has been driven by his own particular vision. Seven years after he graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2008, Nakazato had already established his eponymous fashion label by the time he was 30 years old. The following year, in 2016, he had been formally selected as a guest designer for Haute Couture Week, cementing his place as one of the rising stars in the industry. He has since continued to showcase his collections at Paris Fashion Week, where he entrances audiences with his unique fusion of technology and craftsmanship.

"I want to create clothes that have a deeper meaning, clothes that will inspire people to think about the world and how they can contribute."

Yuima Nakazato continues to develop

his Type-1 designs and Biosmocking

projects that also contribute to

creating sustainable fashion.

Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Nakazato has shown each season that he is more than just a talented designer but a deep thinker who is using his work to address social and environmental issues and push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of fashion. In 2021, he launched the Fashion Frontier Program, an educational initiative designed to empower the next generation of fashion designers.

With the launch of the program, Nakazato is on a mission to discover and nurture future fashion designers who share his vision and courage. The program aims to both educate young fashion designers and encourage them to overcome challenges and create a better society. While the program is currently based in Japan, designers from all over the world can submit their applications.

Through his collections and his work with the Fashion Frontier Program, Yuima Nakazato is redefining what it means to be a fashion designer in the 21st century. He is breaking down barriers and challenging conventional ideas about fashion, harnessing both science and industry, to create a greener, more inclusive, and socially conscious industry.

Highlights of Yuima Nakazato's Spring/Summer 2023/24 Haute Couture Collection in Paris

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Matthew Fisher

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Nathan Geary

Yuima Nakazato Inherit Haute Couture Collection Spring/Summer 2023-24 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Subscribe to support our independent and original journalism, photography, artwork and film.

Monday, 13 March 2023

Winning Everything Everywhere all at Once: Five Experts on the Big Moments at the Oscars 2023

By Ari Mattes, University of Notre Dame Australia; Deborah Fisher, University of the Sunshine Coast; Gregory Camp, University of Auckland; Jindan Ni, RMIT University, and Robert Boucaut, University of Adelaide

The Academy Awards in 2023 were a less scandalous affair than last year – although host Jimmy Kimmel never let us forget “the slap”, with so many jokes it was verging on a dead-horse-beating situation.

In fact it was a relatively wholesome ceremony, defined by great sweeps for films All Quiet On The Western Front and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Perhaps the only “shock” was Angela Bassett losing Best Supporting Actress to Jamie Lee Curtis, and thereby being denied the chance to “do the thing”.

Here, we summarise the most important moments from the 2023 Oscars.

All the looks of the champagne carpet

Deborah Fisher, Lecturer in Design and Fashion Studies, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast

The Oscars 2023 red-carpet fashions will spur a rush of activity as the haute couture and designer looks are rapidly reproduced for the knockoff market.

The pillars of European Haute Couture were well represented. The major players such as Louis Vuitton (Cate Blanchett, Ana de Armas), Armani Privé (Nicole Kidman), Dior Haute Couture (Michelle Yeoh), Valentino (Florence Pugh), Prada (Catherine Martin), Atelier Versace (Lady Gaga), floated across the carpet with all the feel of Paris fashion week.

There was, however, an obvious absence of emerging or avant-garde designers or even American designers. Instead, it would be fair to say there was an abundance of understated looks, with shades of soft ecru and off-white dominating (Halle Berry, Michelle Williams, Emily Blunt, Tems). Where there was colour, it was delectable- mid-toned aqua (Halle Bailey in Dolce & Gabbana), citrusy orange (Sandra Oh in Giambattista Valli), chartreuse (Winnie Harlow in Atelier Versace), palpable purple (Angela Bassett in Moschino).

Red (note the carpet was renamed champagne) got a solid look in with Melissa McCarthy, Anni Strenisko, and Cara Delavinge, who stunned in Elie Saab. The men followed the mostly conservative mood, with Austin Butler and Lenny Kravitz in Saint Laurent, Keith Urban and Ke Huy Quan in Armani Privé, and Paul Mescal in Gucci. Questlove, last year’s Best Documentary winner, adorned his Crocs with sparkles and bling so he could “shine his light,” perhaps the most personalised of the men’s sartorial stories.

And of course, there are some looks that will, although they should not, be copied – Sigourney Weaver’s somewhat matronly Givenchy dress and Eva Longoria’s art deco-inspired, but far too ambitious gown by Zuhair Murad.

Keeping the score

Gregory Camp, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland School of Music

There was a sore lack of good music throughout this year’s ceremony.

I miss the days of the orchestra pit. The orchestra this year was invisible, other than a few short shots of them leading into commercial breaks and during the Best Original Score announcement. They appeared to be in a conference room somewhere backstage; just because one can pipe in a remote orchestra fairly easily doesn’t mean one should. And despite the fact there was a live orchestra (somewhere), most of the music sounded prerecorded, as it was mixed in a flat, lossy way.

The music clips chosen to accompany the presenters’ and winners’ walks to and from the stage were not very exciting. We heard a lot of a very dull looping motive from Everything Everywhere All at Once as members of its team went to collect their well-deserved awards.

It is possible to write music that is immediately noticeable and interesting; just ask John Williams, who can fit more melodic material into two bars than this whole ceremony had in all its incidental music. All Quiet on the Western Front’s repeating minor triad is at least memorable, although I was surprised it beat Williams’ and Justin Hurwitz’s stronger work for The Fabelmans and Babylon, respectively, to win the Best Score award.

The Best Song nominees this year were uniformly poor, aside from Naatu Naatu, which did its job well and justifiably won the award. Applause from Tell It Like a Woman was really terrible, a surprisingly ineffective song from Oscar stronghold Diane Warren. This Is a Life from Everything Everywhere was also an awful song, but it added a much-needed touch of the bizarre to this slick ceremony.

Naatu Naatu was the only musical moment that brought back something of the Oscars’ glamour of yore. This is one of the first songs from song-rich Indian cinema to break through to the Oscars, but we can hope that it will pave the way for more.

Lady Gaga had a rough start with her Top Gun song Hold My Hand, suffering through some poor vocal intonation, but she warmed into it. Considering this is a film awards show, the poor cinematography for this performance was striking: Gaga was in an overly tight shot and the camera operator had a hard time keeping this very active performer in the frame. That said, I liked the simplicity of the setting for the song, the strong backlighting isolating her and her band in the space and making the large stage seem more intimate.

Rihanna gave a good performance of another lacklustre number, Wakanda Forever’s Lift Me Up. The downbeat, repetitive song didn’t allow her to show very much of her range. This all makes one desperate for a return of the likes of Henry Mancini and Randy Newman to this category.

Brendan Fraser and Best Actor

Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia

With his Oscar win for Best Actor for The Whale, Brendan Fraser simply proves something most of us have known all along – he’s a great performer. If anyone had any doubts, they simply needed to watch performances across his career, from Encino Man to Gods and Monsters to his comical cameo as himself in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.

His performance in The Whale is fine, and good enough to win the Oscar, but again the win reflects popular sensibilities rather than being a measure of true artistic merit. It’s essentially an easy part in an easily digestible film from a director, Darren Aronofsky, who’s made a career of making genre films that seem more interesting and complex than they actually are.

He returns here, with Fraser, to similar terrain he covered with Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler – getting a performance out of a supposedly washed-up actor that, at least in part, reflects the courage of the actor in appearing warts and all – willingly vulnerable and hopeless.

Brendan Fraser, winner of the Best Actor in a Leading Role award for The Whale. Caroline Brehman/ EPA

I reiterate, Fraser is good (as he was in Airheads, although he wasn’t nominated for Best Actor for that performance), but so much of the pathos and energy of the film simply comes from his appearance – and our knowledge that Fraser used to be a Hollywood heartthrob.

And there’s something fundamentally lazy about that.

Michelle Yeoh and Best Actress in a Leading Role

Jindan Ni, Lecturer, Global and Language Studies, RMIT University

Everything Everywhere All at Once became the biggest winner at the 95th Academy Awards – surprising, but also not so surprising. Cast mainly by Asian actors and actresses, this strangely (sometimes even disturbingly) funny but also moving comedy won most of the major awards, including Best Leading Actress and Best Director.

Michelle Yeoh, who is now the first Asian actor to win Best Actress, addressed her acceptance speech directly to “the little boys and girls” who look like herself, and proudly claimed that her winning is “the beacon of hope and possibility” for all the Asians who pursue their dreams in Hollywood, or even more broadly, in Western societies with a long history of deeming Asians as inferior.

The sweeping wins of Everything Everywhere All At Once at the Oscars is a manifestation of reconciliation and inclusiveness that the Academy Awards are attempting to embrace and strive for.

Michelle Yeoh poses with the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Everything Everywhere All at Once at the Governors Ball after the Oscars. John Locher/ AP

Despite its historical winnings at the Academy Awards, it is hard to say that Everything Everywhere All At Once has successfully managed to make new representations of Asian in the big screen. Yeoh still needed to make good use of her Kung fu skills in the movie to appeal to the audience and the market.

The final thing I would like to add is although Cate Blanchett did not win Best Actress, her formidable and awe-inspiring acting in Tár is by no means inferior.

Cate Blanchett arrives for the 95th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Caroline Brehman/ EPA

Just like the nickname “da mowang”, literally meaning “the mighty devil”, the Chinese audience has given to Cate, her powerful and almost enigmatic performance in Tár also tells of the infinite possibilities for women who refuse to be defined by age, which largely resonate with Yeoh’s words: “Ladies, don’t ever let anyone tell you you are past your prime.”

Celebrity legacy at the Oscars

Robert Boucaut, PhD Candidate and Tutor, Media Department, University of Adelaide

The choice of winners for the acting categories at the 2023 Oscars speaks to a respect for building celebrity legacy – all are actors over 50 years of age and on their first-ever nominations.

Despite the backlash copped in the year of the nepo-baby, Jamie Lee Curtis used her speech to thank her dedicated fanbase who have championed her work in action and horror movies.

Fraser and Ke Huy Quan’s outpourings of emotion for their wins signified their deeply felt triumphs over years of uncertainty in filmmaking: an Oscar’s “comeback narrative” always highlights how an industrial status quo works against individuals who fall out of favour in a celebrity marketplace.

‘Nepo baby’ Jamie Lee Curtis at an Oscars afterparty, with her Oscar. John Locher/ AP

And the collectively held breath across film Twitter upon the announcement of Halle Berry presenting the Best Actress award was finally relaxed with Michelle Yeoh’s win – the first woman of colour to win the award presented it to the second, 21 years later.

Across the awards season both Yeoh and Quan demonstrated an acute awareness of the significance their wins would hold as Asian actors, and their speeches invited the audience to dream big. The genuine emotion offered and elicited across all four categories were a refreshing rebuttal for an Oscars cynic, that the symbolic power of these awards can be put in service of expanding notions of prestige acting and celebrity.

Ke Huy Quan with his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Caroline Brehman/ EPA

The best picture? Or was it

Ari Mattes

The production companies behind Everything Everywhere All at Once must be frothing at the mouth – not only have they cleaned up at the box office, making (by conservative estimates) five times their budget, but their film has now won the Best Picture Oscar.

Does it deserve it? In much of the commentary around the film, moral and aesthetic categories are being confused. It is good that it has won, because it’s an independent production, and it’s nice that a film with Chinese actors in it has won. But this is a moral argument.

Although undeniably a crowd-pleaser, I found the film aesthetically drab. It was overlong, a mess of ideas derived from other (and often better) works, and the whole thing was overlaid with a kind of irritatingly cutesy schtick.

It works okay as a 1980s-style blockbuster, but as a piece of cinema it is doubtful it will have any bearing or longevity in the cultural archive.

Was it actually the best picture of 2022? No – there were six better films nominated for the award, with The Banshees of Inisherin a true cinematic masterpiece – not to mention all the excellent films that had no showing in the Oscars.

What its win does suggest (along with the success of Top Gun: Maverick), is that audiences are craving nostalgic cinema that plays well on the big screen. And this will excite the kinds of mega-corporations that produce indie cinema these days – they can simply recycle and combine material from their VHS collection.

Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia; Deborah Fisher, Design/Fashion Studies in School of Business & Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast; Gregory Camp, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland; Jindan Ni, Lecturer, Global and Language Studies, RMIT University, and Robert Boucaut, PhD Candidate & Tutor, Media Department, University of Adelaide

Subscribe to support our independent and original journalism, photography, artwork and film.