Fairfield, NJ (Feb. 29, 2024) – Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. (Kyocera) is pleased to announce that a collaboration work designed and created by Kunihiko Morinaga, a designer and founder of the Japanese fashion brand “ANREALAGE,” using the fabric printed by Kyocera’s inkjet textile printer “FOREARTH”, has been announced at the 2024-25 Fall/Winter womenswear collection in Paris Fashion Week. This collection was held in Paris from Feb. 26 to March 5.
The fabric printed by the sustainable inkjet textile printer “FOREARTH” was presented as a collaboration work by the fashion brand “ANREALAGE” at the Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2024-25.
Background of this collaboration
Morinaga sympathized with the concept of “FOREARTH”, an inkjet textile printer that dramatically reduced water usage contributing to solve long-standing issues in the textile and apparel industries, such as printing-related water pollution and waste resulting from the mass disposal of overstocked fabric and clothing. That’s how this collaboration realized.
About the designer
Morinaga is a designer known for his innovative combination of fashion and technology. Morinaga’s unique perspective and creativity have attracted worldwide attention. In 2003, he established the brand “ANREALAGE”, which recognizes fashion as a tool to change everyday life. He debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2014 and was selected as one of the 8 finalists out of 1,700 designers worldwide at the LVMH PRIZE, founded by Moët Hennessy ‐ Louis Vuitton in 2019. In 2021, he worked on the official uniforms for the Japanese pavilion of the Dubai Expo and the stage costume at Beyonce’s World Tour in 2023. His ability to express himself beyond the traditional apparel business continues to surprise and impact the industry.
“The theme of this collection is OBJECT. I pursued the way of clothes for inanimate objects, not humans,” Morinaga said. “The show has taken on the world 100 years from now, in the 22nd century, and I expressed what kind of clothes will be available and what kind of fashion shows will be held there. In this show, I tried to express the concept of FOREARTH to reduce water usage in the form of clothes, and I showed a dress like a drop of water. Clothes are usually made to fit the human body, but I thought of the perfect sphere as the human body and made a frilly dress to wrap around the sphere. The dress itself looks like a drop of water when the sphere is wearing the dress, but when you peel it off the sphere, it turns into a dress that people wear. In all my years of making clothes, I thought it was natural to use a lot of water for prints, and I thought that using water would keep the colors, vibrant expression, and texture of the fabric. However, I was very impressed that the fabric printed with FOREARTH achieves the vibrant and high-definition expression even though it uses very little water, and that the texture of the textile itself is not spoiled at all and the softness of the fabric was maintained.
“I think new technology is necessary for evolution of not only fashion but also creation. FOREARTH enables us to express what we have not been able to achieve before, and it is very important for our own creation that this will lead to the future, the 22nd century.”
Features of the inkjet textile printer “FOREARTH”
1）Water Free Concept
Dramatically reduces water usage in textile printing.*
2）Creative Free
Proprietary pigment ink realizes both soft hand-feel prints and high fastness in a wide range of fabrics.
3）Location Free
Textile printing does not rely on water resources, so it supports optimized production volumes and optimized manufacturing location setting and contributes to the reduction of logistic costs, time, and excess inventories.As “FOREARTH” dramatically reduces water usage in textile printing next to zero, it does not require separate facilities such as for steaming and washing needed in pre- and post-treatment processes of conventional textile printing. This will also contribute to a significant reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
Furthermore, it achieves a soft texture maintaining softness of the fabric that are important in the textile and apparel industries, and enables high-definition printing on a wide range of fabrics such as cotton, silk, polyester, nylon, and blended fabrics.
* FOREARTH has a two-step printing and drying process. No water is used in the printing process based on the concept of “WATER FREE”. Kyocera focuses on reducing water usage not only for the printing process but also for the maintenance process. FOREARTH also recycles cleaning water used for the conveyor belt with filters resulting in water consumption per 1kg of fabric reduced to 0.02L (Based on Kyocera research, in 2022).
Click here for more information about the inkjet textile printer “FOREARTH”
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About Kyocera Document Solutions America Inc.
Kyocera Document Solutions America Inc. is a group company of Kyocera Document Solutions Inc., a global leading provider of total document solutions based in Osaka, Japan. The company’s portfolio includes reliable and eco-friendly MFPs and printers, as well as business applications and consultative services which enable customers to optimize and manage their document workflow, reaching new heights of efficiency. With professional expertise and a culture of empathetic partnership, the objective of the company is to help organizations put knowledge to work to drive change.
Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. is a group company of Kyocera Corporation (Kyocera), a leading supplier of semiconductor packages, industrial and automotive components, electronic devices, smart energy systems, printers, copiers, and mobile phones. During the year ended March 31, 2023, the Kyocera Group’s consolidated sales revenue totaled 2 trillion yen (approx. US$15.1 billion). Kyocera is ranked #672 on Forbes magazine’s 2023 “Global 2000” list of the world’s largest publicly traded companies, and has been named by The Wall Street Journal among “The World’s 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies.”
