Yuima Nakazato Couture Spring-Summer 2025: A Gift to the Future

By Jesse Scott
Photography: Edward Wendt

Some couture shows impress with their technical precision, others evoke emotion through their sheer beauty, and others provoke deep contemplation through their unique conceptual basis. Yuima Nakazato's Spring-Summer 2025 offering did all three. Set in an ethereally lit room, centered by a mysterious mound of sand, the show unfolded to a meditative soundtrack of crashing waves and the calls of seagulls. Models moved slowly yet deliberately down the runway, as if in a hypnotic trance, many dragging trains of intricately woven jewels across the concrete floor. The rich color palette ranged between black, white, and marine blue, with generous amounts of gold. And while as a critic I first marveled at the complex and avant-garde construction, as a human I soon found myself pondering the philosophical meaning of the spectacle before me.

Each season sees Nakazato transport his guests to a new part of the world, sourcing inspiration from local landscapes, histories, and customs to create an immersive cross-cultural experience with textiles as his medium. This season he embarked on both a temporal and geographical journey, exploring the Sahara Desert both as it is now and as it was millions of years ago. Prior to creating the collection, Nakazato visited the Sahara el Beyda, or "White Desert National Park," which is located in central Egypt and was once at the bottom of the vast sea. The purpose of the trip? Nakazato told guests: "to think about the faraway memories that dwell in this planet." It was a profound experience. Reflecting on his time in this sun-weathered landscape resistant to modernity and inhospitable to human life, Nakazato philosophized: "In the expanse of geometrical urban landscapes, I stand atop the sight of rocks that take the shape of giant mushrooms. Memories, dreams, reveries, and the real world fuse. I become unsure of which reality I'm in."

Day and night. Ocean and desert. Reality and fantasy. Technology and nature (Nakazato recalled driving for hours in the Sahara without signal or GPS). In the solitude of the desert, all blends together in a hallucinatory vision of the cosmos, at times forcing us to reconsider our very existence. "When the sun sets, the White Desert transforms in an instant," Nakazato continued. "In darkness, the land of sand shifts into the shape of waves with gusts of wind, as if it was turning into liquid. A giant creature is underground - once emerged, this became a persistent thought that refuses to leave my mind."

Nakazato conveyed all of this through a gilded collection, each piece heavy both physically and metaphorically, that seemed to traverse through both the ocean and rugged extraterrestrial landscapes in a peaceful yet powerful solitude. Decay, and an acceptance of it, were omnipresent. The collection was entitled "FADE," which Nakazato explained to the press could refer to both the physical weathering of landscapes and the erosion of the memories and the materials that comprise our lives and identities.

The opening looks of the collection, gracefully draped kimonos and capes and a mesh bodysuit, had no shortage of golden details. But as the show carried on, it was gold and azure blue (often juxtaposed with neutral black and white) that were dominant. This color scheme reminded me immediately of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's iconic death mask, the extravagant coffins ubiquitous with Ancient Egyptian royalty, and the vivid paintings in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings (about a seven-hour drive from Sahara el Beyda). All of these objects are connected with the Ancient Egyptians' rich mythology surrounding the afterlife. Death, for the Egyptians, was to some degree an extension of earthly existence. The dead, it was believed, would have their hearts weighed by the god Anubis, and if their good deeds outnumbered their bad, they would continue to a blissful afterlife not unlike their earthly reality. Death was not something to be feared but prepared for. Tombs were stocked with food, tools, and jewels: all the necessities and luxuries that souls could desire as they continued to their next stage of being.

It was with this sense of peace and acceptance that the jewel-draped models drifted down the runway. Pharaonic allusions not only further grounded the collection in Egypt, its primary source of inspiration, but also in the philosophical reflections on time and humanity that the looks and setting invited.

This collection was the most intensive that Nakazato's team has ever created. Many pieces were crocheted, with each taking approximately 500 hours. Revolutionary combinations of Japanese lacquer craftsmanship, Brewed Protein fibers developed by Spiber, Inc., digital printing, and AI photo processing technology pushed frontiers in how diverse avant-garde technologies can be used in tandem with human handiwork.

The most spectacular piece was saved for the finale. When it appeared as if the last look had been presented, Nakazato emerged. Rather than bowing, he purposefully strode towards the center of the sand mound. Like an Egyptologist unearthing an ancient tomb, he unearthed a spectacular, if slightly "weathered," golden robe. The robe was made of over 2,000 ceramic pieces, each one crafted, glazed, and threaded with beadings by hand. With a spotlight shining on the sand mound, the designer fastened the robe around his final model as if performing a sacred ritualistic practice. He then slowly retreated. The model stood alone, stoically, under the spotlight in a gilded cage. He was the last to leave the runway.

Speaking to Rain following the show, Nakazato referred to this masterful collection as his "gift to the future." It was also a gift to all who attended, reminding us of the magnitude of time, and, seemingly paradoxically, both the significance and insignificance of our own lives. Many guests had tears in their eyes as they filed out of the show. That, it can be argued, signifies the power of fashion and artistry at its finest.