Yuima Nakazato is a 28-year-old Japanese fashion designer who graduated from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts with an MA in fashion design and began building his career in 2009 with his first collection in Paris. Since then, his name has been decorated with awards, including the International Talent Support Vertice Award for Innovation. He has created stage costumes for Lady Gaga and world tour costumes for Fergie.
The award winning designer created neo-futuristic sportswear with an Objet500 Connex multi-material 3D Printer for his 2014 collection, which premiered on July 25th in Tokyo, with the help of Stratasys Ltd., a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping. The concept of the collection was based on Nakazato’s vision of a neo-futuristic sport: “Young street punks, riding on motorcycles, playing a basketball-like sports game in an underground dune stadium,” as he says. For this imaginary game, Nakazato designed a uniform and used the 3D Printer to design bibs that combine numbers and images of human muscles, reflecting his idea of “clothing as extension of the body.”
The collection is themed on a futuristic biker gang meets basketball team that looks like it has come out of the 2D world into our reality. Nakazato has created 2 teams, one in black, one in white and the constant being the neon red that runs throughout. Nakazato did not disregard the shoes of the collection. They were futuristic trainers designed in collaboration with Sawa Konishi. The contrast in all of his materials was phenomenal; fur with plastic fabrics and leather on top of that. He managed to make his imagination a reality before our eyes.