Naim Josefi Rethinks the Way We Wear Our Denim

Iranian Swedish fashion designer Naim Josefi thrives on innovation, closing the gap between fashion, art, and technology. His high-end streetwear brand, named after himself, is focused on denim, utilizing the newest technology to enable sustainability, with the intention of being at the forefront of design development.

Some of his more out-there designs include the world’s first 3D printed shoe. A newer version of the printed shoe was released earlier this year, with only 10 pieces per color. Another innovation of his was steel denim, created using a yarn of steel. According to Josefi, one of the most effective resources for recycling, steel, can be melted down and reused an unlimited amount of times. “We hope that this will inspire a change in the way the industry looks at recycling and creating new fabrics for future use,” reads the brand’s website.

“We use technology in many of our products,” Josefi further explained his practice in an interview with Make It Last, “and we started thinking about how we could use our core technology and at the same time develop our product in a sustainable way. Laser printing is not a new technique, but it has not been applied in fashion on a large scale before.”

According to Josefi, he introduced laser printed jeans to show a more sustainable alternative to designing and coloring denim. “Through laser printing, we don’t need to wash the denim as much to bring out the design or the character,” he explains. “Usually the color, look, and surface design of a denim garment is produced by bleaching. Every time a denim fabric is bleached, it demands usage of 20 liters of water. We only wash our denim once to achieve the right color and by laser printing the surface design, we are able to save 80 liters of water per jeans.”

Take a look at some of his forward-thinking designs in the gallery below:

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