FOREARTH was presented as a collaboration work by the fashion brand ANREALAGE at the Paris Fashion

Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. (President: Hironori Ando, hereinafter: Kyocera) is pleased to announce that a collaboration work designed and created by Mr. 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, France from Monday, February 26 to Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The collaboration work with Kyocera was announced on Tuesday, February 27 at 17:00 (CET).​

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1．Background of this collaboration

Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga sympathised 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 realised.

2．About a designer Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga

Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga is a designer known for his innovative combination of fashion and technology. Mr. Morinaga's unique perspective and creativity have attracted worldwide attention.

In 2003, he established the brand "ANREALAGE", which recognises 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 around the world 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 the Beyonce's World Tour in 2023. His ability to express himself beyond the traditional apparel business continues to surprise and impact the industry. ​

C​omment from Mr. Kunihiko Morinaga

The theme of this collection is “OBJECT”. I pursued the way of clothes for inanimate objects, not humans. 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 colou​rs, vibrant expression, and texture of the fabric. However, I was very impressed that the fabric printed with FOREAR​TH 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 ne​cessary 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.
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3．Features of the inkjet textile printer "FOREARTH"

1. Water Free Concept - Dramatically reduces water usage in textile printing.*
2. Creative Free -  Proprietary pigment ink realises 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 optimised production volumes and optimised 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.

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* 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”​​​​​