Paris Haute Couture: Forged by Fire, Shaped by Sea, Yuima Nakazato Reimagines Fashion's Future

In Paris, Japanese couturier Yuima Nakazato celebrated his tenth anniversary showing on the Paris haute couture calendar with an evocative collection titled Inferno. Photographs and cover picture by Andrea Heinsohn for DAM

Yuima Nakazato challenges the conventions of haute couture by placing innovation and environmental consciousness at the heart of his work. Celebrating ten years on the official Paris Haute Couture Week calendar, the Japanese designer returned with a collection exploring the dialogue between ancient tradition and future technology. Inspired by the volcanic landscapes and immense oceans of the Canary Islands, he ruminates on transformation, resilience and the fragile balance between humanity and the natural world. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Andrea Heinsohn

The glimmering 'Inferno' hues of Yuima Nakazato's

show in the cavernous Salle Noire in Paris.

ON a scorching Paris summer morning, the journey into Yuima Nakazato’s Autumn/Winter 2026 Haute Couture presentation began with a physical and symbolic descent. 

Leaving behind the intense heat and bright summer light above the streets of the French capital, DAM entered the darkness of the Salle Noire at the Maison des Métallos, a dramatic transition that felt like stepping into the 'inferno' at the heart of the collection.

The underground black-box space, with its raw and immersive atmosphere, has long been associated with designers seeking a more experimental relationship between fashion, architecture and performance. Its intimate darkness has provided the setting for memorable Paris presentations, including those of Junya Watanabe, whose conceptual approach has often embraced the contrast between industrial surroundings and meticulous craftsmanship.

Within this dimly-lit, shadowed environment, Yuima Nakazato unveiled Sea of Fire Inferno, a collection marking the decade since the Japanese designer first joined the official Paris Haute Couture Week, seasons spent challenging the boundaries between couture, contemporary art, technology and sustainability.

Yuima Nakazato shows how couture is a living art form, capable of responding to environmental challenges, technological change and humanity’s relationship with the natural world

Sculptural neck and head pieces are a 

signature of the designer's hand work.

DAM has covered Nakazato’s journey throughout this remarkable ten years, documenting the evolution of a designer who has consistently expanded the language of couture. 

Since his debut as an official guest designer in 2016, he has remained the only Japanese Maison presenting on the official Haute Couture Week calendar, creating a body of work that exists between fashion, sculpture, theatre and scientific innovation.

The origins of the latest collection began far from Paris, on the volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands. Facing the Atlantic Ocean from cliffs of black lava rock, Nakazato encountered a landscape shaped by opposing forces, ancient eruptions beneath the sea, immense waves crashing against the coastline, and a constant dialogue between creation and destruction.

“Fire brings light and warmth, broadening the possibilities of life, yet also burns whole lands, possessing the power to decimate life itself,” Nakazato explains. “Water, the source of life, a precious resource in danger of reaching its limits, also brings uncontrollable disasters, growing ever more intense in the modern age.”

“Fire and water are fundamentally opposed, yet they transform beneath the light of the sun and the moon, I came to see them as two inseparable, complementary forces within a single whole”

The dialogue between destruction

and creation underpinned the ideas

behind the designer's collection.

For the designer, these forces were not simply symbols of conflict. They represented a deeper relationship between opposing energies, a duality that became the foundation of the collection. “Fire and water are fundamentally opposed,” Nakazato reflects. 

“Yet, just as they seem to transform beneath the light of the sun and the moon, I came to see them as two inseparable, complementary forces within a single whole.”

That philosophy shaped every element of the new designs. Rather than presenting nature as a visual reference alone, Nakazato translated its contradictions into garments that explored transformation, movement and the shifting boundaries between strength and vulnerability.

Central to the collection was monogi, the traditional costume-changing technique used in Noh and Kyogen theatre. Unlike a conventional costume change hidden from the audience, monogi makes transformation visible, turning the act of change itself into part of the performance. It can represent the passage of time, a change in identity or the emergence of another state of being. Nakazato used this process during the show, dressing models and adding accessories hanging on the stage. 

Central to the collection is monogi, the traditional costume-changing technique used in Noh and Kyogen theatre. 

Yuima Nakazato using the monogi technique.

showing the transformation of the garments.

The couturier adopted this centuries-old theatrical principle as a foundation for the collection. Five performers wore garments based on the construction principles of the kimono, allowing the pieces to transform visibly before the audience. 

The movement from deep blue to intense red became a physical expression of the transition between water and fire, between calm and chaos, preservation and destruction.

The influence of the kimono was fundamental to Nakazato’s approach. Rather than simply referencing traditional Japanese dress aesthetically, he explored its underlying philosophy of adaptability and storytelling. “The Japanese kimono is constructed entirely from rectangles, yet it can assume countless forms depending on how it is worn,” he explains. “Its patterns also carry meaning, stories, and prayers.”

This understanding of clothing as a vessel for memory and narrative has remained central to Nakazato’s practice. This season, garments became more than exceptional examples of craftsmanship; they became expressions of history, cultural symbolism and human transformation.

Discarded garments are transformed into new materials, fasteners created from upcycled clothing make sustainability integral to every component 

Nakazato's handmade ceramic "armour' (above)

is a motif he has explored in his recent work.

Yuima Nakazato continues his 'fragile armour' series, further exploring the relationship between protection and vulnerability. Typically, armour represents defence and conflict, yet Nakazato questions whether true strength must always appear rigid or impenetrable.

“Traditionally, armour exists to protect the human body while symbolizing conflict,” he says. “By creating armour from fragile ceramic, I seek to redefine what armor can represent.”

The result was a reinterpretation of resilience, one where fragility itself becomes a source of strength. Alongside these philosophical explorations, the collection demonstrated the technical innovation that has become central to the Yuima Nakazato Maison. 

Continuing his collaboration with Epson through Dry Fiber Technology, the designer explored methods of transforming discarded garments into new materials. A further partnership with YKK resulted in fasteners created from upcycled clothing, extending the sustainability conversation into every component of the garment.

Photographs captured of the ocean surrounding Tenerife, were digitally transformed, the blue waters reimagined as flames through advanced textile printing technology 

Photographs taken by the designer of the ocean

are digitally transformed to create new designs.

Technology became another form of storytelling. Photographs captured by Nakazato of the ocean surrounding Tenerife were digitally transformed, with the blue waters reimagined as flames through advanced textile printing technology. The process mirrored the collection’s central idea: that different elements can evolve into something entirely new.

After ten years on the official Paris Haute Couture calendar, Yuima Nakazato continues to occupy a singular position within contemporary couture. While many traditional maisons often look to heritage as their foundation, Nakazato has built his identity through experimentation, proving that craftsmanship and technology, cultural tradition and innovation, can exist not in opposition but in conversation.

Inferno is not simply an anniversary collection; it was a statement of intent. It demonstrated that couture remains a living art form, capable of responding to environmental challenges, technological change and humanity’s evolving relationship with the natural world.

Yuima Nakazato remains one of couture’s most original voices, a designer who continues to redefine the possibilities of the discipline while honouring its savoire faire tradition

Yuima Nakazato is a designer who redefines

the parametres of both fashion and couture, 

Nakazato graduated from the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2008 before establishing his international career through an interdisciplinary approach to design. 

Since showing in Paris in 2016, he has moved beyond fashion into opera, ballet and contemporary art, creating costumes for productions including those with the Boston Ballet and the Geneva National Theatre. His work was celebrated in his first solo exhibition, Yuima Nakazato: Beyond Couture, presented at the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode in 2024.

Building on his Paris debut, Yuima Nakazato has become one of couture’s most original voices, a designer who continues to redefine the possibilities of the discipline while honouring its savoir-faire traditions. Through the new collection, he reminded the fashion world that couture is not only about creating beauty, but about questioning, transforming and imagining what comes next. 

See more highlights from Yuima Nakazato's Haute Couture AW26/27 Collection in Paris