She Sells Sea Nails

If you were to visit the right beach south of Tokyo, Japan, on the right day, you might see a woman sitting next to a wheelchair, plucking colorful bits of plastic from the gray sand. Instead of dumping the plastic trash into a trash can, she places them into a glass jar. This is Naomi Arimoto, a Japanese manicurist who melds recycling and fashion on artificial nails.

Naomi Arimoto collecting plastic. Photo credit: REUTERS / Manami Yamada.

Arimoto has been using bits of “umigomi” (sea trash) to make nail tips since 2021. She’s under no illusions about the scale of the problem—she told NHK World Japan that “this stuff is really everywhere. It feels impossible for one person to make an impact”. But Arimoto is having an impact, if not in volume of plastic removed, then certainly in raising awareness.

For those not living directly on a coast, marine plastic is almost always out of sight, out of mind. Upcycling this trash into decorative nails puts a reminder directly onto the hand, visible to the wearer at nearly all times.

Umigomi nails. Photo credit: NHK World Japan

The world of fashion has struggled with sustainability in recent years, especially with the growth of wasteful trends like “fast fashion”. Decorating nails with marine plastic is a fantastic alignment of fashion with sustainability. When Arimoto heats the plastic to fuse it within the metal ring, each chunk of plastic melts and their colors flow together creating a unique pattern each time. But if they don’t melt properly, she breaks apart the botched chunk and uses the fragments in other pieces. Nothing is thrown away.

While most of the fashion industry searches for ways to reduce waste and obtain renewable electricity for factories, umigomi nails hint at what might come next: fashion that takes pollution out of the environment.